Spies Like Us
by garsonfan
Summary: Harry goes in search of Ruth half way across the globe. Spooks with an international flavour. H/R fluff.
1. Chapter 1

SPIES LIKE US

This fic was inspired by a recent item on the news regarding the loss of a Blackberry by a senior advisor to Britain's PM in a Shanghai disco. It was alleged that the man was the victim of a honey trap set by the Chinese Secret Service. When I heard that, this story more or less wrote itself. 99 of this fic was written before I watched a single episode of Season 6.

I would like to thank my little cheerleading team – you know who you are - for egging me on. You have been very generous with your comments and encouragement.

The story starts with a crossover with another TV show, "Waking the Dead". (I had to watch something whilst waiting for new Seasons "Spooks".) I have included the job title of some of the characters from this show, for the benefit of readers who are not familiar with this show.

The story line jumps backwards and forwards in places, so please be patient and note the dates sprinkled here and there.

**The usual disclaimer applies – I don't own any of the characters in "Spooks", Kudos owns them; I also do not own any of the characters in "Waking the Dead", the mighty BBC owns them. I hope they will not get too offended that I have used these character templates for a bit of fun and fan fic writing.**

* * *

Chapter 1

Late March 2009, London

DI Spencer Jordan poked his head round the door to Boyd's office.

"Eh, Boyd, there's a Harry Pearce to see you."

Whilst waiting to be admitted into Boyd's office, Harry looked around and was a little surprised to see that Boyd's team lived and worked in surroundings not unlike the Grid – all windowless and grim. Someone once described the Grid as having 'minimalist charms'. Harry thought that compared to this place, the Grid was almost palatial.

"Tell him to go away …" Boyd was busy with the papers before him on his desk. Then Boyd seemed to have second thoughts and looked up. "Who is he? What does he want? Does he have an appointment?"

"No, I don't." This time, it was Harry who appeared in the door frame. Harry is not the sort of person who liked to be kept waiting in reception, regardless of whether or not he had an appointment.

"That's OK, Spence." Boyd gave Spencer a knowing smile, as if to say, _that's alright, its not your fault_, and then he turned to his visitor. "Mr. Pearce?"

"Actually, its Sir Harry, but please call me Harry."

"Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd. Everyone calls me Boyd."

The two men shook hands and Boyd gestured to Harry to take a seat.

"Yes, Harry. What can I do for you?"

"I am the head of Section D in MI5," Harry began.

Boyd's mouth formed an _oh_. Ever since Stella told him about the mysterious fingerprints, he had been expecting a visit from the spooks, except that he did not expected such a senior spook to darken his doorway so quickly.

"We have been expecting a visit from someone on your side, given what happened this morning. I just didn't expect you folks to react so quickly."

"I apologise for not having made an appointment, but given the circumstances, this is not the sort of meeting for which a prior appointment can be made."

"Yes, sorry about that little outburst." Boyd was apologetic and smiled, though Harry noticed that his eyes remained cool and calm.

"It has been brought to my attention that a member of your crew has recently tried to access the personnel files in my Section. I would like to know why?"

"Well, that came as a surprise to us as well," said Boyd. Then without warning, he yelled out, "Stella!" Harry grimaced, _did he have to shout?_

"Bring us a couple of coffees, will you, Stella? Thanks."

"Tea for me, please, milk and no sugar," said Harry. Ever since she left, Harry had changed his beverage of choice from coffee to tea, in memory of her. Every time he had a cup of tea, which was several times a day, he would remember her.

Boyd started to recount the events which had occurred in the last day or so and which culminated in a member of his team, Detective Sergeant Stella Goodman, being blocked for access to the MI5 intranet site.

* * *

Mid February 2009, somewhere in the North Sea

The seas had been particularly rough during this storm. Wave after wave crashed against the containers stacked on the ship which was slowly making its way towards Felixstowe. After relentless assault by the winds, the rain and the waves for several hours, many of the metal fasteners which had bound the containers together on board the ship started to buckle and snap. Under normal circumstances, the fasteners might have been able to fulfill their function and hold the containers in place. However, since the ship was seriously overloaded, the bad weather simply aggravated the pressure on these fasteners. Nothing could be done as the crew watched a large number of containers fall into the sea. Given the collective roar of the winds and the waves, nobody could hear the screams and cries which came out of one of the containers.

The captain tried to remain calm in the circumstances. He knew that his ship was overloaded, and that some of the containers had questionable cargo. However, he had agreed the arrangements with his contact and did not ask too many questions. His decision was made much easier by the 5,000 Euros which he had received from that contact. The captain needed the money. He had lost a lot of money gambling at his last port of call. If he went home with less than the usual pay package, there would be hell to pay when his wife started the usual interrogation. The captain had been hoping and praying for good weather for the rest of the journey. Now, he was not sure whether to be happy or sad that some of the containers, especially the ones with questionable cargo, had sunk. The insurers would probably want to investigate why the fasteners had snapped, but as long as they could not recover those containers, they might not have sufficient evidence to bring charges against him.

A week later, a few of the containers washed ashore on the southern coast of England and news of their arrival quickly attracted a small crowd of local residents who hoped that the containers might contain valuable items for pilfering. Most of the containers were quite battered and for some of them, their doors were left half open. The scavengers quickly noticed that a terrible stench came out of one of the containers, so nobody wanted to go near that particular container. One of the more helpful local resident notified the police who arrived fairly soon to investigate and to cordon off the area. When the police opened the door to the container with the bad smell, they found at least 30 to 40 dead bodies inside, all bloated and decomposing; they had all drowned.

All of the dead were Chinese. A large number were men. There were about five women and one teenage boy. It did not take long for the police to conclude that they were all illegal immigrants hiding inside the container in an attempt to sneak into Britain. In a way, the local police were relieved. The fact that illegal immigrants were involved meant that they could turn this container over to the Foreign Office or some other branch of the Government for processing.

The forensics unit of Scotland Yard was not pleased with the prospect of having to process 36 bodies from one of the containers which washed ashore. One team member commented, rather grumpily, that they should not be wasting British taxpayers' money on processing the dead bodies of illegal immigrants. He was overruled, of course, since the Chinese Embassy in London had already lodged a request to have as much information about the dead bodies as possible before they were cremated. These people might have tried to enter Britain in an illegal manner, but now that they were dead, their families in China would have to be informed. The Chinese Embassy did not mention that the exercise might be futile since often times, the families in China would be reluctant to come forward to claim the remains of their loved ones, for fear of reprisal from the Government that their dead relatives had tried to exit the country in an illegal manner.

The forensics unit started with the teenage boy first, as they thought that he might be the simplest one to process. The team hit the jackpot with that first body. The boy's DNA was a close match with the DNA of a person who was suspected of having raped and killed a 16 year old girl on Hampstead Heath five years ago. As soon as the team discovered this, they farmed the case off to the Cold Case Squad. One down, 35 to go.

* * *

When Boyd saw the dead body and other paperwork being delivered to the Cold Case Squad, he complained loudly, as usual.

"Why are we now reduced to processing evidence relating to illegal immigrants? Don't they know that we are overstretched as it is?"

"It has something to do with a cold case," Eve explained patiently. Eve Lockhart was the resident forensic pathologist on Boyd's team. "They thought that it might be useful for us to examine the body and compare it to evidence collected on the Hampstead Heath rape case which they couldn't solve five years ago. Apparently, there is a connection with one of the suspects in that case."

"It doesn't take a genius to tell you that it couldn't have been this boy."

"No, but it could have been a close relative, perhaps his father."

"Oh, I see." Actually, Boyd would rather not know. "Well, don't spend too much time on it. If the perp was this boy's father, I don't expect him to come running once we advertise the fact that we have his son's body. We have a few other pending cases to work on. Get Stella to help you. Spence and I have somewhere else to be."

Stella gave Boyd's backside a filthy look. She hated being saddled with these mundane jobs as the junior member of the team.

In her usual meticulous manner, Eve started to process the body. Whilst cutting away the clothes off the dead boy, Eve felt that something had been sewn into the side of the jacket he had worn. After making some more cuts, Eve held a small package wrapped in several layers of plastic sheets. By the time she finished peeling away those layers of plastic wrapping, Eve held a plastic envelope which contained a piece of paper. There was no point in checking the plastic wrapping for prints or other evidence since they had been in the water for too long. But the plastic envelope and its content were waterproofed by the wrapping and could yield some useful prints. So she began to dust those two items for prints and carried out other tests. When she collected some prints, she gave them to Stella and asked her to run those against prints in the database to see if they could be matched to anyone who was already in the system.

As far as Stella was concerned, this was an extremely boring chore. She would feed one set of prints into the scanner, then wait for it to be loaded in the software and wait some more before the system told her that it could not find a match. Except that this time, instead of getting a no match message, one of the prints produced an angry message to the effect that she was trying to access classified information and that she did not have clearance to proceed beyond that screen. The message came from MI5.

"Oh shit!" Stella knew that she had inadvertently tripped an alarm somewhere. She immediately went off to tell Boyd. _He will not be pleased!_

* * *

Shortly after Stella hit the MI5 site, similar alarm bells rang on the screen on Connie's desk over at Thames House. She immediately went to see Harry.

"Harry, we've got a problem."

"Don't we always? Tell me something I don't know," Harry growled. "What it is?"

"The Cold Case Squad in Scotland Yard has just tried to access one of our personnel files. You better sit down."

"Cold Case Squad? Whose file was it?"

"Ruth Evershed's file."

* * *

All reviews will be gratefully received.


	2. Chapter 2

**Same disclaimer as before**

* * *

Chapter 2

Late March 2009, London

"My colleague, Stella, fed the fingerprints which we obtained from the document and its folder into the system and was sent directly to your intranet site. That was how we ended up with our noses pressed against your personnel records," explained Boyd. "The items should have been discovered by the forensics team at Scotland Yard, but those boys couldn't wait to dump the dead body on us and so they failed to discover the secret compartment in the dead boy's jacket. We were simply doing our job."

"The person in question is deceased. She died almost three years ago. There is nothing further for you to pursue where she is concerned."

"Really? That's interesting," said Boyd, giving Harry one of his patented Cheshire cat grins. "The work which we do here is sometimes described as 'waking the dead'. Well, it would appear that this time, we have, indeed, woken up the dead." Boyd started to go through the papers on his desk and when he found what he was looking for, he checked the information in the piece of paper which he had fished out before he handed it over to Harry. Boyd thought that Harry's name was familiar.

"You see, Stella was a little bored after she was denied entry into your intranet site, so she started to dig around some more and on a hunch, googled your officer. It would appear that someone with the same name did 'die' about two and a half years ago. There were newspaper reports about some political incident she was involved in. Stella then keyed in her name in the records maintained by the Deaths Registry and she found a hit," said Boyd as he gestured to the piece of paper which Harry was now holding. "But then you already know that don't you, Harry, because apparently you identified the body at the time. The problem is," said Boyd, saving the punch line till last, "the fingerprint records in the Deaths Registry do not match the ones which we found."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. Someone in Section D had slipped up, to put it mildly. When Ruth 'went away', they should have ensured that the records kept by the Deaths Registry matched Ruth's personal records, including her fingerprints and DNA samples. But Malcolm probably assumed that the body which they fished out of the Thames to use as Ruth's decoy had been in the water for so long that the technicians at the mortuary would not bother to obtain any prints or samples. Poor overworked Malcolm. Harry himself had rather assumed that once a body had been positively identified, then the mortuary would not bother to keep any sort of fingerprint records. The Government probably did not have sufficient server or storage space to keep such comprehensive records. Everyone was probably too distraught at the time over Ruth's departure to pay attention to this kind of detail.

_Oh god, if it was so easy for this crew to find this mistake, it couldn't have taken some other unfriendly parties very long to figure out the truth about what really happened to Ruth. This little mistake might have cost Ruth her life! _ _Oh Ruth, I'm so so sorry …_ Harry started to look really miserable. When Connie told him that the Cold Case Squad was sniffing around Ruth's file, he feared the worst. After all this time, could she be actually dead? Harry took a sip of his tea to stave off the nausea which was threatening to erupt from him. He handed the mortuary report back to Boyd.

Boyd saw the look on Harry's face and much as he enjoyed seeing a spook squirm, he thought that he should get on with his grand finale. "Apparently, your 'dead' officer is still very much alive. The fingerprints we collected from the document, and its folder, couldn't have been left there two or three years ago. They are recent prints."

_What? What the heck is this man playing at? If I find out that he's been jerking me around, there'd be hell to pay._ "Are you sure?"

"Oh yes, we tested the paper to verify this," said Boyd. "The paper was manufactured from pulp produced from trees grown in special forests in Norway or somewhere. You might have heard of those forests. The trees have been genetically modified to grow very quickly, and they are grown specially for the paper industry. The chemical composition of this kind of paper is quite unique. This type of forest is a recent phenomenon, so we're fairly certain that the prints are recent prints."

_She's still alive! _ Harry shifted his weight in his seat and the look on his face improved somewhat. He had no idea how he should react to this information. Just a moment ago, he had feared the worst and now he was told that recent prints of Ruth were found on some document which was carried by an illegal Chinese immigrant._ What can this mean?_

"Oh, did I mention that the piece of paper contained a lot of gobbledygook? Looks like its been written in some sort of code. We don't have the manpower here to decipher what is in this document, and my guess is you might have someone on your team who will be able to make sense of it and do so quickly. Here's a photocopy of the document in question."

Before Harry took the photocopied document to have a look, several thoughts went through his brain. _If Ruth's recent prints were found on these items, which were carried by an illegal Chinese immigrant, and the document contained an encoded message, it could mean that she is not only alive but might be mixed up with the Chinese Secret Service._ _Oh Ruth, what have you done now?_ Harry then gave the document a quick once over and looked quite distressed whilst doing so.

"You see, Harry, I'm a just simple policeman, and I accept that there may be aspects of your job which people like me will never understand. I'm not sure if our little discovery might have upset whatever scheme MI5 have put in place."

"It does complicate matters." Harry was not in the habit of discussing MI5 matters with people who were not part of his team, but this sudden discovery had somehow disoriented him. "We lost contact with the officer in question a few years ago …"

Boyd noted that Harry was no longer claiming that the person in question had been dead for some years. He also caught the look in Harry's eyes and immediately understood what it meant. This was an officer who was special to Harry, otherwise it would not have been necessary for someone so senior to appear in his office to enquire after this matter.

"Ruth Evershed was a valued member of my team," Harry began. "She was involved in an operation some years ago at the end of which it was necessary for her to disappear. If it is now known that she has resurfaced in some other part of the world, then yes, it could have certain repercussions for my Section."

"Were you close to this person?" Even though Boyd probably did not have the right to ask this kind of question, he was curious after having witnessed the emotional rollercoaster ride that Harry had gone through a moment ago. Boyd was an experienced policeman and had years of practice in reading people's faces. He felt a little sorry for Harry. "I have some personal experience in having lost a member of my team, who was killed on the job," said Boyd softly.

Boyd remembered how devastated he felt when he lost Mel Silver. Boyd had been a policeman for a long time and had seen his fair share of dead bodies over the years, including those of dead coppers. But nothing had prepared him for the sight of Mel, lying there on the pavement with her skull cracked open and her blood and brain matter splattered all over the place. She had been pushed by a suspect from a high floor in a multi storey apartment block. Boyd was very fond of Mel, in an avuncular sort of way, and took her death very hard. For years thereafter, Boyd refused to acknowledge his grieve and it was a long time before he finally had the courage to pay his respects at her grave site, having stayed away from her funeral altogether. He had been severely chastised by Grace Foley, his resident psychological profiler, on a number of occasions for repressing his feelings over Mel's death.

Boyd considered himself quite a good judge of character and even though he had only spent half an hour or so with Harry, he saw in his visitor the same arrogance that he carried around himself. He had a sense that like him, Harry took immense pride in his work and would protect members of his team come what may. When he caught that look in Harry's eyes, he thought that he knew exactly how Harry felt at that moment.

Harry took another look at the document in his hand and said, "I'll need to have one of my officers look at this. May I take this photocopy away with me?"

"Yes, certainly but after you've arranged for it to be decoded, you must let me know what it says so that I can judge for myself whether this information is relevant to our enquiry. A murder investigation is still a murder investigation. I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers here, but you should know that I will have to include this evidence in our report. Unless, of course, I have a good reason not to."

"Will the Official Secrets Act do?"

"Eh, yes, I suppose."

"Given the apparent involvement of my former colleague and the way this document appears to have been encoded, I would say that the information contained in this document probably has more to do with our line of work than yours."

"Look, I can hold off doing our report on this matter for a little while. If you can let me have the necessary paperwork to justify turning over the two items to you before close of business tomorrow, I'll see what I can do at this end. That should give you a little more than 24 hours. Deal?"

"Yes."

"And Harry, if this document can tell you where you can find your officer, you might want to do that before its too late."

"Thank you, I'll bear that in mind. You have been very helpful. I'll be in touch with you again tomorrow."

* * *

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"I understand from Spence that you had just been spooked, royally," Grace asked Boyd, tongue in cheek, after Harry left his office. "When I heard who was in your office, I called around a few friends in high places in order to find out more about your visitor, you know, just in case you needed some help, or ammunition."

"What did you find out?"

"Quite a lot actually. It would appear that you and Harry Pearce are very much alike, at least in your working styles, like two peas in a pod. The two of you should have gotten on like a house on fire, which is why there was no need for me to barge into your office to save you."

"What do you mean, Grace? In what ways am I like Harry Pearce?"

Grace turned around and walked out of Boyd's office with a huge grin on her face. She was not going to elaborate on what she said or answer Boyd's question. She might just let him stew for a couple of hours.

"Grace, Grace?" Boyd called after her. _Why does that woman always have to speak in riddles? Bloody psychologists!_

* * *

I have used a series of symbols so show the start of a separate section. The limited range of formatting tools available on this website makes it hard to use other devices.

**All reviews will be gratefully received. Your reviews will help me fix, in later chapters, some of the queries you raise in your reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Same disclaimer as before**

Chapter 3

Late March 2009, London

Harry left the offices of the Cold Case squad with a million questions swirling round his head. As soon as he went back to Thames House, he handed the document to Malcolm with instructions to drop everything else and start working on this right away. By 8 pm, Malcolm was able to report to Harry that the information contained in the document related to sales figures of Chinese arms to Iran, sales to be concluded within the next 12 months. After Harry thanked Malcolm for his hard work, he summoned Connie to his office and showed her the document.

"Connie, what do you make of this?"

"Hmm, the fact that the Chinese have been supplying arms and munitions to the Iranians is old news, Harry," said Connie after giving the document a quick look. "The information contained in this document is not so incendiary as to start a war, but it still makes interesting reading. For example, we did not know the extent of those arms sales, and we certainly did not know that the Chinese had these," Connie pointed to a few items on the list, "or that the Chinese even had the technology to manufacture these other items for resale. Its not your usual carton of milk and half a dozen eggs kind of grocery list. The problem is, unless we know who compiled this list, we don't know whether this intelligence can be relied on. It could be the Chinese puffing up their chests to pretend that they're more dangerous than they really are. Where did you get this?"

Harry told Connie about his visit with DI Boyd. "Ruth Evershed's prints have been found on this document and in the plastics envelope which carried it. DS Boyd has already told me that these are recent prints. And now we know that the encoded message deals with current intelligence," Harry said with a heavy sigh.

"I had no idea that Ruth Evershed is still in the business?" Connie looked worried. She knew all about Ruth and what happened to her. She wondered why Ruth should resurface at this time, and in this manner. Connie was worried for Harry's sake, since she knew how badly Harry had taken Ruth's 'death'. She was relieved that Harry appeared to have recovered from his broken heart recently and now this! Connie was sure that Harry was capable of covering his own back side where politics with Whitehall were concerned. But as for affairs of the heart, Connie doubted whether Harry could weather this latest turn of events.

"Neither did I. If she did compile this list, god knows how she managed to lay her hands on this sort of information. If it was her, its very unlike Ruth to be so sloppy as to leave her fingerprints all over the place, even if she did not use to be much of a field agent, in which case, we have to consider whether the fingerprints were left deliberately and if so whether this is a cry for help and if it is, I don't know how or what we can do to help. For starters, we don't even have her present location, except that it could be somewhere in China. I don't know what to think." All of these thoughts came tumbling out of Harry as he started to pace in his office.

"Calm down, Harry. Let's take one thing at a time and start working our way backwards. We don't know who is the intended recipient of this information, us or the Americans who would practically wet themselves if they received this kind of intelligence, assuming that it is genuine intelligence. You know how most of these illegal immigrants from China seldom stay on in this country. They sneak across to North America at the earliest opportunity."

"So the dead boy was probably used as a mule, a courier, a messenger?" Harry felt frustrated.

"We don't even know if the boy knew that he was carrying this information to start with. If he did, maybe he was told that this would be his ticket for safe passage to the US, or to remain in Britain. If only we knew who was supposed to receive this information, then perhaps we can start making enquiries at that end before tracing it back to the document's author."

"But with the boy now dead, there is no way of finding that out. I wonder if we need to put a few feelers out in Chinatown to see if anyone was expecting this document. But if we do, Six might want to muscle in on the act and I really don't want them involved, not till I find out the extent of Ruth's involvement in all this."

"How about making enquiries with the Americans?"

"No, absolutely not, not yet anyway."

"So what are we going to do, Harry?"

Harry took a long moment to think before responding to Connie. "I'm not sure, Connie. Its late and there's nothing further we can do by sitting here and staring at this list. Why don't we call it a day, sleep on it, and maybe I'll be able to think of something in the morning."

* * *

Harry had little sleep that night. He vacillated between feeling elated, as he now knew that Ruth was still alive, somewhere on the other side of the world, and despair, since it was unclear whether Ruth was somehow mixed up with some unsavory crowd. _How else could she have gotten hold of this information?_ He shuddered to think how deeply she would have to be involved with the Chinese in order to be anywhere near this kind of information. He tended to accept that the information contained in the document was genuine, given Ruth's apparent involvement. _But if the list was compiled by Ruth, is she now in any kind of danger?_ _If the information is bogus, could she have been set up, and if so who is out to get her and why? Does she know what or who she is dealing with?_

Then there was the possibility that Ruth had been turned and was now working for the Chinese Secret Service. It came as a shock and disappointment to Harry whenever a member of his team was turned, as was the case with Ros Meyers. Harry always felt a tremendous sense of personal failure when that happened. Someone you would have trusted your life with, someone who knew all about how your mind worked, your deepest secrets and fears, that person was now working for your enemy. The sense of betrayal felt just as bad as, if not worse than, finding one's spouse in bed with another man, or woman.

But Harry was not sure if Ruth was capable of being turned. He thought that he had understood her better than that. Harry wondered again whether the list was compiled by Ruth and if so, was she sending any message other than what was already encoded in the document? _Malcolm should have noticed any secret hidden messages in the document, other than the information relating to arms sales, but then I put him under such time pressure that perhaps he didn't have the chance to pursue that aspect._ Harry wondered whether he should ask Connie to do some analysis along these lines in the morning. _Is it possible that Ruth is being kept by the Chinese against her will and coerced into dealing with that document?_ If that was the case, he would have to try and save her, but how would he go about it? China was a vast country and he would not know where to start.

In his heart, Harry was still burning a candle for Ruth, though the light had started to dim. Did he want to see her again? The answer was undoubtedly yes. But did she want to see Harry again? Harry had no idea. _Why couldn't she just send a postcard and let me know where she was so that I could go and get her? But no, she'd be worried about compromising my position. I told her that I'd sort everything out, but then I lost track of her and had expected the worst …_ _Using an illegal immigrant as a courier was surely not the most efficient way of making a drop or sending a message._

Harry went through every permutation of the situation that he could think of. By 5 am, Harry gave up any attempt to get any sleep and asked to be driven to work at 6 am. When the car reached the Embankment, Harry instructed his driver to let him out. He wanted to stare at the river for a moment in order to clear his head. He told his driver to park somewhere within line of sight and come back for him in 10 minutes.

* * *

After he stood before his favourite spot on the Embankment for five minutes, Harry noticed that a Chinese man had slipped quietly next to him.

"Morning, Harry. Didn't know you to be such an early bird."

Harry turned to look at his visitor. It was Sherman Tang, a senior spook from the Chinese side. He was not stationed in London, that much Harry was sure of, though he seemed to fly in and out of London with monotonous regularity. Harry had dealt with Sherman in the past. They met a few times during security briefings whenever any Chinese politician visited London.

The Chinese were not usually the cause of any domestic terrorist activities in Britain, so Harry did not have too many dealings with the Chinese spooks in London, though he was aware of their presence. As long as they, or spooks from any other country for that matter, behaved in a respectable manner, Harry was inclined to leave them to their own devices. However, there had been recent reports of an increase in espionage activities in London by the Chinese. Even though for the moment, this was confined to mostly commercial matters, e.g. hacking into servers maintained by banks and other large corporations which had operations in London, the increase was a cause for concern and MI5 (including Harry's Section D) had been briefed to keep a closer eye on the Chinese spooks in case their activities turned into any form of domestic disturbance or were likely to cause disruption to the London financial markets.

"Hello Sherman. Doing a bit of worm catching yourself, I see. Its been a while. I hope you have been keeping well."

"Thank you, Harry, can't complain. Bit nippy this time of the morning." Although it was now late March, the early morning air was still quite cold.

Sherman Tang was a little older than Harry and was taller and thinner. He had a gaunt look and a pair of rather cold eyes. His hair was peppery grey and he was clean shaven. He spoke with what could only be described as a mid-Atlantic accent, with just a hint of his Chinese accent coming through now and again. Like Harry, he was always impeccably dressed. He gave the impression of a man who was in control of everything around him.

Harry had noticed that whenever there was a meeting with the Chinese, they always started with a discussion about the weather, and depending on how the weather was, that could be an indication as to how the meeting would go. But Harry was not interested in discussing the weather with this Chinese spook, not this morning anyway. So Harry came right to the point, "what can I do for you, Sherman?"

"I noticed that you spent yesterday afternoon with Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd and his crew." Sherman gave Harry a knowing smile.

Harry wondered if Boyd had his offices swept regularly for listening devices. Harry did not believe in coincidences, especially on a cold March morning at 6:30 am. He only found out yesterday that Ruth might be alive on the other side of the world. If indeed Ruth had an active involvement in compiling the arms sales list or handling the document, could he be looking at her new boss?

"Why is this matter of any interest to you, Sherman? I had no idea that there is a Chinese connection to my discussions with DS Boyd." Harry lied in order to stall for time. He had to find out how much Sherman knew before he could decide how much of what he knew should be disclosed to Sherman.

"We are interested in the body of the dead Chinese boy which DS Boyd and his team have been examining," said Sherman whilst he examined his leather gloves in order to give an air of nonchalance.

_So the Chinese have been tracking the teenage boy's body._ "Why would a man like you be interested in the body of an illegal immigrant? Surely your team has not been reduced to cleaning up this sort of mess." Harry was still hoping to fish more information out of Sherman.

Sherman only mentioned a 'dead Chinese boy' and yet Harry was immediately able to describe him as 'an illegal immigrant'. Sherman smiled when he realized that Harry had just inadvertently admitted that he did go and see DI Boyd about the dead boy and so he volleyed right back, "why would a man in your position spend an afternoon with the leader of the Cold Case Squad on the very day this body was delivered to them?" Sherman knew how to play this game and he was not letting on any more than he wanted to.

Harry started to feel annoyed by that infuriating smile but he was also intrigued. _So, Sherman knows about the document._

"Look Harry, even though I come from northern China where the winters can be as harsh as can be, I really don't care for this cold weather. Can we adjourn to more pleasant surroundings before we carry on with this conversation? Can I interest you in some breakfast? I know just the place."

To show that he did not mean any harm, Sherman suggested that they take Harry's car. Even so, Harry had no doubt that Sherman's car would be following right behind his car.

* * *

Please leave a review and let me know how you like or don't like the story so far.


	4. Chapter 4

**Same Disclaimer as before**

Chapter 4

Late March 2009, London

After orders for breakfast were placed, Harry turned to Sherman Tang and said, "what is this all about, Sherman?"

"When we found out that the dead boy was being examined by the Cold Case Squad, we started to keep an eye on that office. Then you turned up there yesterday afternoon, and we knew that they must have found what we're after. Its an encoded document."

"Why don't you tell me a little more about this document, Sherman?"

Sherman took a moment to look at Harry and decided that he could not delay the inevitable any longer. _Someone has to blink first and unfortunately, it will have to be me in this case._

"That document was compiled by a member of our team who recently decided that he wanted to play the game on both sides. Got a bit too clever, you see. This agent thought that he could earn some extra money from the Americans so that he could feed his wife's obsession for pricey designer goods. Its so hard to train up these young agents nowadays. I'm sure you heard about how one of your senior Government advisors lost his Blackberry in a Shanghai disco last July. They blamed it on a honey trap which we were supposed to have set up. Do people still fall for honey traps in this day and age? You'd think that they'd see one coming a mile off. Now, I'm not adverse to using the occasional honey trap, but if I ran that operation, assuming that we did set any kind of trap, I would have simply downloaded the information from the Blackberry and slipped it back in the man's pocket before he even knew that it was missing. That would have been so much more elegant, don't you think? Young people always want to show off, don't they?"

Harry let Sherman rattle on a bit in the hope that he might give up more information about the document. Harry knew about the incident involving that Blackberry but right now, he was not interested in discussing the relative merits of honey traps.

"Don't you teach proper tradecraft in your neck of the woods any more? Surely using an illegal immigrant as courier must be the most inefficient and unreliable way of making a drop."

"You're probably right," Sherman sighed. "It just goes to show that the younger members of our profession have no respect for the old ways. It was rather unfortunate that we weren't able to detain the boy before he boarded the container ship."

"Moses parted the Red Sea, the mighty Chinese Security Service conjured up a storm to sink a few containers. I am impressed," said Harry sarcastically. "Pity you couldn't have made the container with the illegal immigrants stay at the bottom of the sea."

Sherman gave a rueful smile. "When we found out that the container which he was hiding in had sunk, we were quite relieved. So you can imagine our distress when the container then washed ashore. What I can't understand is, why did you turn up at DI Boyd's office instead of MI6? What is your interest in this matter, Harry?"

Harry was thankful that their orders had arrived at this point as this gave him some extra time to try and formulate a response whilst the waiters distributed the food.

"This must be the best of its kind I have ever tasted anywhere in the world," said Sherman after he took a mouthful of his Eggs Benedict. "In my view, it's the hollandaise sauce which determines the success of this dish. So, Harry, what is your interest in this matter?"

Harry was not in the habit of ingesting such a heavy item for breakfast and did not share Sherman's enthusiasm for his breakfast. He had ordered a simple continental breakfast of croissant, orange juice and tea.

"Does it matter, Sherman, whether it was Five or Six who are involved? Lets just say that there are certain aspects of this matter which are relevant to my operations." Harry continued to evade Sherman's enquiry. "Were you thinking of retrieving that document from DI Boyd's office?"

"Well," Sherman said slowly, trying to choose his words carefully. "That would be nice, now wouldn't it, except that by now, I'm sure you must have a good idea of the information contained in that document, so I guess there is not much point in getting the document back, is there? The only thing is, I would much rather that you didn't disclose the existence or the contents of this document to the Americans."

"You know, of course, that we're rather close to our cousins. Why would I not want to share that information with the Americans, Sherman?" Harry knew that the Americans have been guilty of duplicitous behaviour in the past towards the British Security Service and when push came to shove, he really did not have a problem with not sharing certain tidbits of intelligence with the Americans. However, he would be interested in a trade-off and was giving Sherman a hint.

"The new Administration across the pond is still finding its feet, and I would hate to think what they can do with a document like that in their dealings with China. I assume that you know that China remains the largest creditor of the US Government. We hold over one third of their treasury bills, not to mention the continued existence of a huge trade surplus in our favour, and yet, they continue to behave in a most disagreeable manner towards us."

Harry did not wish to discuss American politics with Sherman. He pretended to take a strong interest in the pulp in his orange juice and was glad that his little gesture was picked up by Sherman who promptly cut short his diatribe regarding the Americans.

Harry could not think of a good way to introduce the small matter of Ruth's fingerprints on the document. Ruth did not have a weakness for pricey designer goods, so she did not fit the description of the wife of the rogue agent who had prepared the encoded list. This time, it was Harry's turn to blink. "It would appear that one of my former officers handled that document at some stage. Would you know anything about that, Sherman?"

"Really?" There was a hairline crack in Sherman's cool façade. "That _is_ interesting." Sherman Tang simply looked at Harry and waited for him to pose the next question. The silence was deafening. He did not ask which of Harry's former officers he was referring to. If Sherman was in any way glad or worried about this new twist, he was doing a wonderful job of not showing any signs of it.

"Is Ruth Evershed now working for you?" This was the question which Harry had wanted to ask and he finally got it off his chest.

Sherman was a little surprised by the directness of that question and took a moment before responding, "ah yes, Ms. Evershed." Sherman let that comment sink in a little before asking Harry, "would you believe me if I told you, either way?"

Harry hated the way Sherman always answered his question with another question, though he noticed that Sherman was being unnecessarily evasive on this latest question. _If Ruth is now working for the Chinese team, wouldn't Sherman want to gloat over it? But Sherman stopped short of a flat denial, so what's happening here?_

Harry tried another approach. "You obviously know who I'm talking about. Do you have the current whereabouts of Ms. Evershed?"

For once, Sherman gave a direct answer. "Yes, Harry. She's been enjoying our hospitality for the past two and a half years." Sherman rather enjoyed the look on Harry's face at this moment. "It was a member of my team who first pointed out your Ms. Evershed to me, ever since he met her at Havensworth."

Harry could feel the beginnings of a migraine in his head. He wondered whether he could ask the maitre d' for some tablets for his headache. _Has Ruth now taken up with a Chinese spook? She hadn't mentioned anything about having 'met' one at Havensworth, but then again, if she did, I'd be the last person she'd tell. She was confined to her hotel room most of the time during that operation. Was that why she wouldn't come near me that night when we ran into each other in the corridor? Was that the reason it was so easy for her to decide to take the fall over Cotterdam and leave me? I wonder if I could ask Sherman to disambiguate the word 'met' in this context. After all, 'met' could be just a chance meeting in an elevator, or it could mean the start of a relationship, or it could mean …. But knowing Sherman, if I asked, he will just give me another one of his infuriating smiles and a totally useless answer._ Harry tried hard to remain poker faced, but there was no mistaking the dull ache which was forming in his heart.

"We kept an eye on Ms. Evershed when she left London in October 2006. Come now Harry, don't give me that look. It couldn't have been more obvious that it was a fake death. Give us _some_ credit. I would have thought that you have a section in your basic training manual under 'C' which deals with 'coincidences' and 'conveniences'," Sherman gave Harry a small smirk before he continued. "We watched from the sidelines whilst the whole Cotterdam affair unfolded. It is not our policy to meddle with other people's internal affairs, and it was inappropriate and unnecessary for us to do anything at the time. But we knew about the 'extraordinary renditions', probably long before your team was implicated. Don't you just love the way the Americans always come up with these pseudo technical terms to disguise a whole range of unacceptable behaviour? Anyway, to cut a long story short, when Ms. Evershed's residence in Paris became unsafe, we arranged for her to be relocated to a city in the Far East, somewhere on our own turf, so that we can guarantee her safety. She's free to leave, if she wants to. She's kept a low profile, until now …" Sherman then gave a slightly quizzical look, as if he was pondering Ruth's involvement with that document.

_You're full of shit, Sherman, _Harry thought. _The Chinese trotted out this philosophy of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of another country only when it suited them._ But Harry was not in the mood to discuss Chinese foreign policy, now or at any other point in time. He was now more worried about having disclosed Ruth's involvement with that document.

Then Sherman brightened up considerably when he realized that he might have some bargaining power with Harry after all. "I suppose once this document is logged and tagged in your records, the fact that Ms. Evershed is alive and well will become public knowledge, well, as far as your superiors are concerned anyway, and that could cause you some problems, couldn't it? Are you prepared to let that happen, Harry?"

"There's nothing we can do about that." _Not true_, Harry told himself, though he was not about to admit that to Sherman Tang.

"I could offer to swap the items for you, Harry, you know, replace them with ones which will not disclose Ms. Evershed's involvement, whatever involvement that is," said Sherman helpfully, "although I can't guarantee that the same information will be contained in the new version of that document. This way, we both get to keep our jobs." Sherman then gestured to the waiter for more coffee.

Harry was not sure he liked the sound of that at all. As far as Ruth was concerned, if her involvement with that bloody document was regarded in any way as treacherous behaviour towards her host, Harry did not need two guesses as to what would happen to her, especially now that Sherman knew about her involvement and was suggesting that the original document be buried. _No, no, no, shit, damn, why did I have to bring up Ruth's involvement? I can't endanger her life any more than I already have! But I didn't know that she had been moved to the Far East by the Chinese Secret Service. How else am I supposed to find out how the hell she became mixed up with this document?_ If Harry accepted this offer, he himself would be indebted to the Chinese and that was not a position that he would like to be in.

"Are you trying to blackmail me, Sherman?" Again, Harry tried to stall for time whilst he did some quick thinking.

Sherman Tang never lost his temper with any one or under any circumstances. On occasion when he whispered, _kill him_, he might as well be whispering sweet nothings in a woman's ear. "Good heavens, no, Harry," Sherman gave a small laugh. "'Blackmail' is such a crude word. Lets just call it a favour between friends. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, as they say. Why don't you think about it, Harry, and call me if you want to take me up on this offer. Though I wouldn't leave it too late, if I were you."

Even though Harry did not keep a copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War by his bedside table, he knew that there was nothing in that book of military strategy which said anything about scratching an opponent's back. Harry took a long, slow sip of his tea.

"I'd like to see Ms. Evershed, if that can be arranged." Harry decided that there was only one way to get to the bottom of things. He was tired of sparring with Sherman.

Sherman considered this request whilst he buttered more toast. Harry could not believe how this man could eat so much and yet none of it showed on his body.

"You'd have to go to Hong Kong to see her. After the change in sovereignty in 1997, I wouldn't have thought that it's regarded as a safe city for someone in your position to visit. Are you sure you want to do that? I'm not sure your seeing her will achieve anything or resolve her position where her former employers are concerned."

The collective term 'Hong Kong' actually included three districts, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories. It had been a British colony for over 100 years. The island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British pursuant to the Treaty of Nanking which was signed in 1842 following the first opium war. The British fought for the right to sell opium to China as a means of redressing a serious trade imbalance over tea and silk. In 1860, the British came back for more and when they defeated China in the second opium war, they took Kowloon peninsula. In 1898, the British obtained a 99 year lease over additional land on Kowloon and a collection of outlying islands which together became known as the New Territories.

In the early 1980s, Margaret Thatcher went to Beijing to see Deng Xiao Ping, then China's paramount leader, in order to broach the subject of renewing the lease over the New Territories when it was due to expire in 1997. At the end of that meeting, Margaret Thatcher had to concede that not only would an extension of the lease over the New Territories be highly inappropriate, she had also lost an argument with Deng Xiao Ping over the validity of the opium war treaties (which were signed during the Qing Dynasty) and whether those were binding on Communist China (the Communists had assumed power in 1949). It was then agreed that Hong Kong, all three parts of it, must revert to Chinese rule in 1997. It was one of the few times in Margaret Thatcher's political career that she lost a debate and rumour had it that she was so distressed over it that she slipped and fell down the steps of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on her way out. That fall sent the Hong Kong Stock Exchange into a nosedive for a long time.

A handover ceremony was held around midnight on 30 June 1997 with a great deal of pomp and circumstance to signify the change in sovereignty over Hong Kong. Prince Charles was sent as the Queen's representative to attend the ceremony where the Union Jack was lowered and replaced by the flag of the People's Republic of China. Some years later, entries in the Prince's diary were exposed by the British press and amongst other things, it revealed a great deal of highly inflammatory comments which the Prince had made about the handover ceremony in general and the Chinese leaders who were present at that ceremony in particular.

_Hong Kong?_ Harry had heard a lot about that city but never had the inclination to visit. Harry liked the occasional Chinese takeout but did not think that he had to travel that far for a good Chinese meal. He noticed that Sherman did not say that he was not allowed to see Ruth. Harry figured that as long as Sherman was made to believe there was some value in keeping Ruth alive for a trade, she would be safe for the time being.

"I'm sure that if I go, you'll find some way to guarantee my safety whilst I'm there. You did say, Sherman, that that part of the world is your turf. As for dealing with her former employers, that would be my problem, not yours."

Sherman narrowed his eyes and looked at Harry for a moment. "Alright, I think we may have something here we can work with. If you take this trip, I must have your assurance that the document will be handed back to us."

It was a difficult trade, but the desire to see Ruth again and to get to the bottom of this matter was too overwhelming. Harry needed closure where Ruth was concerned. In any case, Connie had already told him that the intelligence in the document had limited value. "Yes, but the return of the document will only take place after I come back to London, with Ms. Evershed if she so desires."

Sherman must have counted to 100 before telling Harry, "agreed, and in the meantime, no one on your side will act on the information contained in the original document, which includes not telling the Americans about it."

"Yes. And until I get to see Ms. Evershed again, you will do your best to ensure that she remains in good health. I don't want to hear about any accidents befalling her."

"Harry, do you really think so little of us? I'll personally make sure that she won't so much as catch a cold, will that do?" There was that enigmatic smile again.

Harry gave a small nod of the head.

Sherman looked through his jacket pockets in search of something. He found his name card holder and took out a business card and handed it to Harry. It showed the name and contact details of a travel agent called Sharon who worked for an agency called Trade Winds Travel.

"Call Sharon once you have picked a date for your departure, and tell her that 'Harvey Patterson' wants a ticket to Hong Kong. I will give her instructions about this arrangement as soon as I finish breakfast. She'll take care of the rest. I'll leave you to decide whether or not you wish to disclose to your superiors the fact that you are going to visit Hong Kong, and the purpose of your visit. If you do decide to disclose where you are going, I would prefer that you do not get MI6 involved."

"Does MI6 know about Ms. Evershed's presence in Hong Kong?"

"I can't tell you for sure, Harry, but my guess is no. You will appreciate that after 1997, for political reasons, there was no way that Beijing would permit MI6 to maintain any sort of presence in Hong Kong. We had the devil of a time trying to dismantle all of their listening posts in that city. Hong Kong is a very pragmatic town and its citizens know exactly which side their bread is buttered on. After the change in sovereignty, the people of Hong Kong have been falling over themselves in order to kowtow to Beijing. Nobody wants to act as an informant for the British. There's no money in dealing with the British, whereas if you get on the good side of Beijing, there are all sorts of lucrative business deals that can be made. I think we have managed to limit MI6 to just one representative there, and I believe that the latest chap they sent there can't even read or write Chinese, which just goes to show how important MI6 now regards Hong Kong. He spends most of his time at the Foreign Correspondents Club being wined and dined by the pro democracy faction so I doubt very much that London is getting an accurate picture of what's going on out there."

Harry thought that even if MI6 knew that Ruth was hiding out in the Far East, they probably would not tell Harry about it, either because they thought that they would help keep Harry's little secret or, more likely, they were keeping that little bit of information for use on a rainy day.

Then Sherman remembered something and asked for the travel agent's name card back. He scribbled a series of numbers on the card before giving it to Harry again.

"If for whatever reason you decide that you don't want to go to Hong Kong after all and wish to take me up on the earlier offer to swap the document, please call this number and leave me a message. We could perhaps do lunch and …"

"About that plane ticket," Harry started to say something but Sherman cut him off.

"Of course, Harry, you will be allowed to pay your own way there. If you do go, I will make sure that the invoice for the trip is sent to your office. I would hate for anyone to suggest that you were taking a bribe from us over this trip. Breakfast, though, is another matter. This one's on me, your money is no good here."

Harry left that breakfast meeting with more questions than he started with. He felt like his head was about to explode whilst processing all the new information which he had obtained. _ Paris?_ He knew that that was Ruth's first port of call. _Why did her stay in Paris become unsafe? Who was after her and were they still looking for her? She is now in the Far East?_ Perhaps that was why his watchers have not been able to report sightings of Ruth after she made it to Paris. _But why would the Chinese Secret Service go out of their way to protect Ruth unless she's been turned? Sherman is right, what do I think I can achieve by going to see her, after all this time?_

#&#&#&#&

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The three little paragraphs on the history of Hong Kong were inserted for the benefit of those readers who do not have a working knowledge on this subject. Apologies if its all a bit dull.

Thanks to everyone who has left a review so far. Your comments are much appreciated. Although the whole fic has already been written, your comments/queries/complaints never fail to send me back to the keyboard for a furious session of re-writing.

Please keep the reviews coming.

#&#&#&#&


	5. Chapter 5

**Same Disclaimer as before**

_For Isa, thanks for helping me with all the French bits._

* * *

Chapter 5

Late December 2006, Paris

After Ruth left London, she made her way to Southampton to board one of the larger ferries to go to France. She landed at Caen and stayed in a number of bed and breakfast places whilst slowly making her way to Paris. She had been given a number of contacts in Paris by Zaf, people who would be able to help her relocate elsewhere. She was not in a hurry to meet those contacts. She felt extremely tired and traumatized and spent a lot of time sleeping. All those years of working till all hours of the day and night on the Grid had taken its toll. Her tiredness could also have been a sign of adrenaline withdrawal. Everything happened so fast before she left London. More than once she asked herself, _what the hell happened and how did I end up like this?_

Ruth never stayed in one place for long, since she was not sure whether the people whose careers were affected by her 'death' accepted her demise without question. She was not sure whether any one would be sent after her, in order to make sure that she was really dead or worse, to capture her. After about one and a half months of wandering aimlessly around the countryside, she finally made it into Paris. She had taken a one week lease on a small apartment in one of the suburbs. She promised herself that before the end of the week, she would make a serious effort to contact the people Zaf had recommended.

Late one afternoon, Ruth found herself standing inside a bread shop. She was trying to decide on the kind of bread which she wanted to buy. She had not been eating very much since she left London. She never stayed in one place long enough to have access to a proper kitchen, and there was no question of her sitting quietly in a restaurant in order to have a decent meal. Ruth had walked past this shop a number of times in the last couple of days and it had always been packed with customers, regardless of the time of day. It had to be a sign that its products were good. The smell which came out of the shop when the latest batch of baked goods left the oven was quite overwhelming. Ruth finally resisted the temptation and walked in this afternoon, even though the shop was full of customers, as usual. She thought that she would get a couple of baguettes in this shop and some cheese and cold cuts from the shop next door. That would be her dinner for the night.

"Je voudrais deux baguettes, s'il vous plait (#1)," she told the shop assistant and pointed at the ones she wanted. After waiting for 15 minutes, it was finally her turn to be served.

A short, thin, middle aged man with a receding hairline stood next to Ruth. He was busy making his own selections known to the girl behind the counter who was serving him. Gilles Ledoux worked for the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure as a desk officer. His English was better than most of the other French staff, and for this reason, Gilles was the liaison officer whenever there were requests for assistance from across the channel.

Gilles heard Ruth speak and he was sure that he had heard that voice before. Gilles had a good memory for most things. Although the woman spoke good French, he could still detect her English accent. There was a husky quality to her voice. Gilles was quite certain that he had spoken to this person in the past, perhaps over the phone. Gilles turned around slowly to look at the woman. She was of medium height with shoulder length dark brown hair. She had a lovely oval face and a pair of large expressive blue/grey eyes. He knew that he had not met this woman before, not in person anyway. By now, Ruth was aware that the man standing next to her was staring at her. She also turned to face him.

"Excusez-moi, mais nous sommes nous déjà rencontrés, Mademoiselle (#2)?" Gilles asked. As soon as those words left Gilles's lips, he felt very foolish. It sounded like a very lame pick-up line. Gilles was not trying to pick up this woman, not in a bread shop, for heaven's sake. Gilles was not a ladies man, by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe he should have thought of a better opening line. He was about to repeat the question in English when the woman responded.

"Non, je ne pense pas (#3)," replied Ruth. Ruth did not wish to sound rude. By now, she had also noticed that the voice of this man sounded familiar. Ruth started to panic. She told herself that she had to either make a quick purchase or abandon her purchase altogether, because in either case, she had to leave the shop before this man had the chance to interrogate her further and unmask her.

Before Ruth was able to decide what she should do, a Chinese man in a well tailored business suit grabbed her arm from behind.

"Darling, I've been looking for you! We're double parked outside, so we should really hurry," said the man in English with an American accent.

The Chinese man put his arm around Ruth and half dragged and half pushed her out of the bread shop, and bundled her into a waiting limousine outside. Ruth wanted to protest, _sir, you have the wrong person, I don't know you._ But she quickly realized that she had been saved from a potentially disastrous situation by being kidnapped by this stranger. She decided that she was not in a position to scream or cause a scene in order to get away from her "saviour". When she was hugged by this man, she felt the unmistakable bulge of a weapon under his jacket.

Once inside the car, Ruth's Chinese captor gave instructions in Mandarin to the driver to leave that part of town. He then turned to introduce himself to Ruth.

"Ms. Evershed, my name is Horace Shen and I'm with the Chinese Security Bureau. Please don't be alarmed. I don't mean to cause you harm."

Ruth's eyes gave her away. _How does he know who I am, really, and what does it mean now that my cover has been blown, as far as the Chinese Secret Service is concerned_? This man looked like he was Ruth's age but she could not be sure since there were usually less lines on a Chinese face than on an European face.

"Some of our agents have been shadowing you as soon as you arrived in Paris. My instructions to them are that you are not to be harmed or put in danger, under any circumstances whatsoever."

_Were these people sent by Harry,_ Ruth wondered.

"We weren't going to make direct contact with you but when we became aware recently that you might be in some danger, we decided that we had to make our presence known to you."

_Danger? What danger? What was this man talking about? He's starting to scare me._

"We discovered that your new neighbours in the apartment building where you are currently staying are connected to unfriendly groups from the Middle East. We also found out that they seemed to have taken an unhealthy interest in your movements. We have it on good authority that they have connections with some of the people who lost their jobs over Cotterdam."

_Why did I not notice the new residents who recently moved into my building?_ _ Is it because my skills as a spy are getting rusty, or is it because I have finally decided to let my guard down and not regard anyone or everyone around me as potential enemies?_ Now that this Horace person mentioned it, Ruth did recall seeing an Algerian family of four moving into the ground floor apartment recently, maybe the day after she herself moved in. She ran into the mother of that family yesterday. She thought that there was something strange about that woman but did not give the matter another thought. Now she realized that it was the woman's eyes – they were much too hard and cold for an ordinary woman. A shiver ran down Ruth's spine.

"How do you know who I am?"

"I first saw you at Havensworth a few months back," said Horace. Ruth kept a very low profile during that conference. She was confined to her room with all her computer equipment most of the time. She remembered being sick of room service after three days. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she actually left the room to go wandering around other parts in the sprawling hotel complex. Yet, this keen eyed Chinese spook managed to pick up her presence. Ruth wondered whether back on the Grid at that time, Malcolm and Jo managed to keep track of the activities of all the other spooks who were present at the conference.

"Your team was so busy with the African states and the Americans during that conference, I doubt that any one paid any attention to us. We were there to look after the ambassador from the People's Republic of China. When I heard that you were somehow involved with the Cotterdam mess, I decided to look into this matter further. At the time, it did not strike me as plausible that you could be a traitor to your team, or that you were the type of person who consorted with the likes of Oliver Mace."

"I am flattered by all this attention from the Chinese Security Service. But back in that bread shop, did you have to drag me out …"

"The man who started to talk to you is an officer of the DGSE. His name is Gilles Ledoux. You might have spoken to him over the phone from time to time when you were still working for MI5. That's why your voice sounded familiar to him. If I had not intervened, it might have only taken him another minute before he realized who you really are. I don't think that he meant any harm, but you wouldn't want your cover blown, now would you?"

_Well, my cover's blown as far as you are concerned! Why did I not realize that that was Gilles __Ledoux__?_ She had spoken to Gilles frequently whenever she needed anything from the French. They even flirted a little over the phone. Once Gilles commented that Ruth had a sensuous voice and wondered whether she had the face to go with that voice. Ruth had laughed and offered to buy Gilles a drink if he ever found himself in London; then he could see for himself whether the face matched the voice. Although Ruth had a dismal love life, she could flirt with the best of them behind the safety of a telephone. The Chinese spook was right, had she exchanged more words with Gilles, he would have been able to identify her. That was a close call. She remained guarded in her attitude since she still had not figured out why the Chinese Secret Service felt obliged to come to her aid.

"If it was that easy for us to keep eyeballs on you, just think how many other agents from any number of other countries out there who are also able to monitor your movements?"

Ruth had to concede that there was some truth to that observation. She had dealt with a number of European agencies during her years on the Grid so that the chances of some other agents recognizing or 'making' her were more than good. She had found life on the run very difficult and had quickly developed an aversion to being caught in any crowd. If she had not been hungry, she would not have gone into the bread shop when it was so full of customers.

"We don't think that it is safe for you to remain in Paris, now that you have acquired these Algerian neighbours. I have a suggestion and would ask that you give it serious consideration."

Ruth looked at Horace Shen. She could not read his face as well as she might be able to read a Caucasian face. _Why should I trust you?_

"We can offer you safe passage out of France and place you somewhere in the Far East, in a city which is under our control so that we can guarantee your safety. We can offer either Shanghai or Hong Kong. Given that you may not have too much experience with Asian cultures, I would suggest that you consider Hong Kong. It remains a very Westernized city, even though it has been more than 10 years after the change in sovereignty. We can set you up with a new legend and a job …"

"Are you trying to turn me, get me to work for your team?"

"No, no, Ms. Evershed, please don't misunderstand. Whilst we would be delighted to have someone with your skills and experience on our team, that was not what I meant. When I mentioned a job, I meant either a teaching position with one of the local universities or one of the bigger trading companies, in any capacity you like, though obviously not a high profile on. We can always revisit the possibility of you doing some intelligence work for us once you have settled in, when you feel up to it."

"Why are you doing this? What is the price that I'll have to pay for this arrangement?"

"Nothing. I know that in this trade, we are always trying to outguess and outdo each other, but when we see a fellow intelligence officer in trouble and we are in a position to assist, we will offer that assistance, without any strings attached. We don't have any beef with the British Intelligence Service. In fact, we'd like to think that we have a rather special relationship with the British, given the many years spent negotiating over the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. There is an old Chinese saying, never make an enemy when you can make a friend. We are only trying to help."

Ruth doubted whether that was true, but she was not quite up-to-date with her Chinese idioms and so she did not take issue with this point. If she accepted this offer, somewhere down the line, she would be called upon to repay the debt. She was not sure she wanted to be put in that position.

"You are not even obliged to stay in the Far East forever. In a few years' time, I'm sure all this excitement over Cotterdam will have died down. You know as well as I do that in politics, nothing stays the same forever. And when it becomes safe for you to move about again, you can always choose to go elsewhere."

"How much time do I have, to consider your offer?"

Just then, Horace's mobile phone rang and he excused himself in order to take that call. The call was conducted in Mandarin, sadly not a language on the list of languages over which Ruth could claim proficiency. Horace looked serious when he terminated his call.

"I've just been informed that one of your Algerian neighbours broke into your apartment for a look-see. Since we haven't bugged your apartment, our watchers can't tell what they were looking for or whether they might have planted some devices in your apartment. Apparently, they've installed their two kids at the entrance to your building as watchers. They will pretend to play until you show up at which time the kids will pretend to quarrel and create a ruckus. That would be the signal for whoever is still in your apartment to get out as quickly as possible. We'll just drive round the block a couple of times for you to see."

When Ruth looked outside the car window, she noticed that she had been driven back to her apartment building. Sure enough, the two Algerian kids were playing at the entrance to the building and appeared to get along fine whilst the car slowly went round the block twice. On the third go round, Horace encouraged Ruth to get out of the car and walk towards the building. He reassured her that he would be following immediately behind her in order to protect her. When the kids saw Ruth approach the building, they broke out in a fight and one of the kids started to scream and yell at the other kid. Horace caught up with Ruth and suggested that they slow down their walk to give the Algerians time to get out of her apartment. Horace then accompanied Ruth back to her apartment. At the door to her apartment, Ruth noticed that the little toothpick which she had planted at the foot of the door was gone, a sure sign that someone had broken into her apartment.

Ruth was now really frightened. This latest development meant that she had to make a quick decision as to whether or not she should accept help from the Chinese. She would not have time to check out whether the story about the Algerian neighbours was one which was fabricated by the Chinese. Then again, there appeared to be no need for the Chinese to fabricate any story since they have effectively 'captured' her already, whether she liked it or not. Then there was her chance meeting with Gilles this afternoon in the bread shop. Surely that kind of coincidence could not have been manufactured. Since her cover had been blown as far as these Algerians were concerned, it might be difficult and dangerous to continue to rely on Zaf's contacts and in turn, this meant that staying in Europe was no longer a viable option.

It was one thing to fake your own death, especially when you had help from your colleagues but even then it had not been all fun and games. It was quite another to stare certain death in the face or worse, face torture and/or rape at the hands of her prospective captors. This would not be the first time that her life was in danger. She remembered that time when she was out in the field and was captured by members of The British Way, a group of White supremacists, who held a big, sharp knife to her throat and used her as bait to lure Adam Carter into their trap. Although she was scared senseless that time, she knew that Adam would turn up to save the day. This time, there would not be any one to come to her rescue, except maybe this Chinese spook standing in her apartment. She knew that whoever was after her now would not simply put a bullet in her, that there was a real chance that she would be tortured for information about Cotterdam, information which could be used against Harry.

Ruth took a good look at Horace Shen. He was a little over six foot tall, which Ruth thought was a little unusual for a Chinese man. He wore spectacles and was quite good looking, in a bookish sort of way. Ruth might have pegged him as a writer or teacher, not a spy. Ruth did not think that this person was capable of torturing any one though she could be wrong. Up until this point in time, Ruth had felt safe in his presence. _So why shouldn't I trust him? He did say that the Chinese did not have any grudges against the British._

Ruth blamed herself for her present predicament. She had left it too late to contact the people Zaf had told her to get in touch with. Somehow, she had hoped against hope that Harry would have sorted out everything and came to collect her before she had to subject herself to a brand new identity. Sadly, that did not happen and now, it looked as if it might never happen. _It can't be that simple to reverse my fake death. Maybe Harry's too busy. I've already said my goodbye, why would Harry still come for me?_ The problem with life on the run was that Ruth felt completely deaf, dumb and blind. Back on the Grid, she had a constant stream of intelligence on whichever subject she was interested in researching. Now, as an ordinary citizen, she had to rely on the usual media outlets for news and information. She knew very well that often times, what the public got to hear in the news was only a small portion of the real story. She had no idea what had been happening back in London after she left. _Maybe its time to accept the fact that there's no turning back._

Horace was now looking at her in a way which implied that Ruth had to make a decision without further delay. If staying in Europe was going to be dangerous, perhaps there was some merit to the suggestion that she should now run and hide in the other side of the world. In the end, the decision which Ruth had to make was quite easy.

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(#1) I would like two of those baguettes, please.

(#2) Pardon me, but have we met before, mademoiselle.

(#3) No, I don't think so.

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Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review.

All reviews will be gratefully received.


	6. Chapter 6

**Same Disclaimer as before**

**This chapter discusses events which took place in Season 5 Episode 5 as well as some Episodes in Season 6. **

**If anyone has not seen Season 5 and/or Season 6, consider yourself warned that this chapter contains spoilers.**

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Chapter 6

Late March 2009, London

By the time Harry finished having breakfast with Sherman, he had already decided what he must do. First he called Connie and told her to start drawing up the necessary papers under the Official Secrets Act in order to get DS Boyd to hand over the original encoded document together with its plastic envelope. She was to hold on to the papers and serve them on Boyd's office only when he told her to. Then Harry called both the MI5 Director General and the Home Secretary and asked for an urgent meeting. Before the meeting, Harry went back to his office in order to gather some paperwork.

Harry met with the Home Secretary and the DG that afternoon. There had been a recent change in Government and there was now a woman installed as the new Home Secretary. Of all the government departments, the new Home Secretary found it most difficult to deal with the security and intelligence agencies since she was never sure how far she could trust them.

"First of all, I would like to thank both of you for accommodating me at such short notice. I've called this meeting to discuss Cotterdam ..."

"Cotterdam? Harry, isn't Cotterdam all water under the bridge? Is this about the Binyam Mohamed case? I know how upset you were with that High Court decision and your protest over how MI5 was portrayed has been duly noted," said Peter Pemberton, the Director General of MI5. "I thought we've already been through all that. Our hands were tied as to how much information could be disclosed in the legal proceedings without at the same time compromising security operations. On the evidence presented to the Court, they couldn't have reached a different conclusion. You know how in this country, we cannot interfere with the independence of the judiciary."

In August 2008, the High Court issued its judgment on the Binyam Mohamed case. Binyam Mohamed was an Ethiopian national who had sought asylum in Britain in the 1990s. He became a suspect in various terrorist activities and was somehow spirited out of Britain and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay where he claimed that he was tortured by the Americans. He also claimed that his torturers were able to taunt him with information which could only have been gathered by MI5 in their surveillance of his activities in Britain. Although the case was not primarily centered on MI5's involvement in the matter, the judges concluded as part of their findings that MI5's role in that case went "far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing". The 'wrongdoing' in this instance being a euphemism for the offshore torturing of terrorist suspects. #_There is a note at the end of this Chapter for more information on this case._#

Harry was livid when he read this judgment. Despite all his best efforts to distance his Section from claims of torture and renditions, MI5 was still held to have been involved in facilitating the rendition of Binyam Mohamed by the Americans. One of his first thoughts was that Ruth had 'died' in vain. As long as he did not know where she was, he could not do anything about it. But now that he knew where she was, he was damned if he was not going to try and resurrect her.

"Harry, you know that the official position of the Home Office has always been that Britain's security and intelligence agencies do not participate in, encourage or condone the use of torture in relation to the interrogation of suspects of terrorist activities," the Home Secretary pointed out. "What is there to talk about?"

"I'd like to remind you of how Section D came into possession of some minutes in October 2006 which blew the lid off this whole discussion of extraordinary renditions in this country. You will recall that those were minutes of a meeting between senior politicians and civil servants where it was decided that it was acceptable to fake the deaths of certain prisoners with a terrorist background so that they could be spirited outside of Britain for the purpose of being interrogated under more flexible circumstances, i.e. tortured for information without having civil liberty groups knowing about it or kicking up a fuss over it. You may also recall that amongst the attendees listed in the minutes was a person code-named "Fox" from Section D. The reference to "Fox" was an attempt to implicate me. I'm sure that by now, you know me well enough to believe me when I say that I did not have an involvement in that meeting, or with that whole conspiracy to collude in renditions. My allegiance has been, and will always be, to this country and by and large, I always work within the confines of the democratic process."

Harry then tabled a copy of the minutes in question. He noticed that neither the Home Secretary nor the DG bothered to pick up the document for a quick look.

"In order to expose the Cotterdam conspiracy as quickly as possible, it was necessary to disclose the existence of these minutes. For MI5 to do that in the shortest time without having fingers pointed at its own possible involvement in this matter, someone had to admit to being 'Fox'. Against my advice and without my prior consent, one of my officers, Ruth Evershed, assumed the moniker of 'Fox' in order to divert attention away from me."

"Harry, how can you be sure that this Ruth Evershed was not really 'Fox'? Wasn't there evidence produced at the time which supported a link between her and Oliver Mace?" The DG decided that they had to indulge in Harry in another one of his rants.

"My officers had to manufacture evidence in order to support the suggestion that Ruth was 'Fox' named in the minutes." Harry tabled the 'before' and 'after' photos of an alleged meeting between Oliver Mace and Ruth. "If it had not been for Ms. Evershed's tenacious efforts and her analytical skills, we might not have obtained those minutes. That document was made available to her through a series of bogus drops organized by Mik Maudsley, a Special Branch officer who was aware of the plot to spirit prisoners out of Cotterdam under cover of a fire at the prison. One of those bogus drops turned out to be the real thing. If Ruth Evershed was 'Fox', why would she have gone to the trouble of hunting down those minutes in the first place? I have here a summary of how my Section came into possession of the minutes." Harry put more paper on the table.

"When Oliver Mace and his cronies discovered that Mik Maudsley wanted to expose their conspiracy, they arranged for Mr. Maudsley to be killed by pushing him under a tube train. They then tried to pin the murder on Ms. Evershed in the hope that this will put pressure on me to endorse their little scheme. The outcome of the unpleasant discussion about this matter between myself and Oliver resulted in my being arrested. In order to save me, Ms. Evershed decided that she had to become 'Fox'. "

Harry could still remember the smirk on Mace's face when he said to him, over lunch on that fateful day, _'save Ruth and join a club'_. Harry then tabled a copy of the police report relating to his arrest after he smashed a wine glass and used it to cut Oliver Mace in the arm.

"Didn't this Evershed woman end up dead?" The DG was still unclear as to where this discussion was going.

For Harry, now came the hard part.

"Ms. Evershed faked her death. I couldn't allow her to spend time in prison whilst we tried to clear up this whole sorry mess. When I dealt with the Attorney General's Department in a similar situation a few years ago in relation to another one of my former officers," said Harry, remembering Zoe Reynolds, "that experience did not fill me with a nice warm feeling. With all due respect to our legal system, I was not prepared to take my chances this time."

Zoe Reynolds had inadvertently killed an undercover police officer during one of her ops and the Government actually brought murder charges against her, for a variety of reasons, many of which were political. The Attorney General initially assured Harry that Zoe would be given nothing more than a slap on the wrist, so when she was given a long jail term at the end of the trial, Harry felt that he, and his Section, had been screwed by the Government. At the time, Harry felt that he had no alternative but to arrange for another prisoner to take Zoe's place and permit Zoe to assume a new identity and relocate to South America. To add insult to injury, Lord Young, who was Attorney General at the time, later turned up as Sholto, a high ranking officer in Yalta, the group which was the bane of Harry's life for most of 2007 as they managed to turn Ros Myers and set in train a series of events which resulted in her 'death'. Harry would not forget in a hurry having to sit there and watch helplessly whilst Juliet Shaw administered a fatal injection to Roz. Harry was sick and tired of losing his officers on account of machinations on the part of the Government and politicians.

"I see," said the DG. "I now recall that at the time, you asked me to approve a rather large payment to the informant who provided you with those wretched minutes. I guess that was Ms. Evershed's getaway money, Harry?"

"Yes, Peter." Harry shifted in his seat.

"I still don't see why we are revisiting this incident, other than to hear your confession of your part in arranging the fake death of one of your former officers," the Home Secretary said very patiently. "Doesn't this sort of thing happen in your line of work all the time?"

"We lost track of Ruth after she 'died'. However, it has recently come to my attention that she has resurfaced in the Far East and is now in the hands of the Chinese." Harry then gave a quick summary of his recent discussions with DS Boyd and Sherman Tang. The DG raised an eyebrow when he heard about the encounter between Harry and the Chinese spy.

"So, one of your former officers may now be working for another team. Again, I don't see why I've had to reschedule some of my other meetings in order to hear this. Surely she wasn't senior enough to be in possession of any sensitive or useful information which she could have passed to the Chinese," said the DG. The Home Secretary nodded in agreement.

Harry decided that perhaps his summary of recent events was too brief and went into greater detail about Sherman Tang's offer to switch the document and his request for the document not to be passed on to the Americans. Harry placed a copy of the decoded document on the table. Again, neither the DG nor the Home Secretary bothered to pick it up to read. Neither was sure whether he/she wanted to be implicated in this matter yet, and no blame could be pinned on them if they could claim ignorance of the matter.

"As long as we already know what is in the encoded document, it really doesn't matter that the document itself has to be returned to the Chinese or that we have been asked to give a confidentiality undertaking in that respect," Harry explained. "The usual problem with confidentiality undertakings applies, in that we can undertake not to disclose the existence of a particular document or the specific contents contained in that document, but there are always ways and means of disseminating or utilizing the information in question without committing a technical breach of the confidentiality undertaking. As for not telling the Americans …"

"Its not as if they have shared everything with us in the past, so I guess there are ways of working around that as well," said the DG.

"Quite. I am not really concerned that there was a thinly disguised attempt to blackmail me, but I'm more concerned over Ms. Evershed's safety. You see, we don't know how her fingerprints ended up on the document in the first place or whether she had any part in trying to smuggle the information out of China. If she did have an active involvement, the fact that Sherman Tang now knows about it could place her in some danger, in which case, she is in need of assistance. If we give the impression that we could not care less about her continued existence, that would leave the Chinese free to do whatever they like to her. If they keep her alive for the moment, that could only mean that they want to save her for a trade on some other matter in future."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean. In what ways do you think that the Chinese might want a trade?" The Home Secretary was beginning to get a sense of where all this discussion was heading but she wanted Harry to spell it out.

"As you may have noticed, the Chinese have increased their activities in this part of the world in recent years in their bid to achieve world domination," Harry pointed out. "I believe that they are becoming more brazen in their dealings with all branches of Government."

"Yes, we have noticed that they have been vacuuming up British companies at every available opportunity," said the Home Secretary who was not at all pleased with this development. The British economy had gone into recession and the Chinese were picking up British companies at bargain basement prices. However, there was a limit as to how much interference or influence a democratically elected Government in a free market economy could exert over primarily commercial transactions.

"And in the US as well," added the DG who was obviously up with his current affairs.

"Perhaps the Chinese Security Service wants us to give them greater latitude in their operations in Britain," Harry suggested, "given the increase in activities by their nationals in this part of the world. They have been complaining for a long time now that we have not done enough to curb demonstrations against China in London, or to share information about potential demonstrations which we might have prior knowledge of."

On any given day, there was always someone or some group protesting about something in some corner of London. These were police matters and they seldom if ever got escalated into Section D matters. Even so, it had not stopped Sherman Tang and his colleagues from lodging complaints with Harry from time to time. Harry got an earful when the Olympic torch passed through the centre of London in April 2008 and caused massive protesting which nearly ended in a riot. Harry had given up, a long time ago, any attempt to try and explain to these people the concepts of freedom of speech and democracy. There was nothing he could do about these demonstrations and even if he had any information about the demonstrators, he was not about to share them with the Chinese and allow them to mete out their own form of retribution against these demonstrators. When he was approached by Sherman Tang this morning, Harry initially thought it was another attempt by the Chinese to bellyache about Tibetan protestors in London.

"There is always the possibility that they wish to muscle in on the party where the Russians are concerned," Harry continued. "Historically, the Chinese have had a love hate relationship with the Russians. There might be occasion when the Chinese wants us to share with them whatever intelligence we have on the Russians. Whatever it is, the Chinese seems to think that the potential exposure of the continued existence of Ms. Evershed might somehow embarrass us, and I would not put it past them to use this to their advantage."

"We wouldn't want that to happen, to be embarrassed, I mean," the DG observed.

"The way we handle this situation may affect how the Chinese will behave towards us in future. In my view, the only way to stop the Chinese from thinking that they have us over a barrel is to give Ruth Evershed her identity back, to 'resurrect' her, so to speak."

"How do you know that Ms. Evershed is still interested in getting her old identity back? Are you at all sure that she has not switched sides permanently?" The DG was not happy about this proposal and the look which the Home Secretary gave him showed that she concurred with his unease.

"You're right, I don't know that for certain, which is why I'd like permission to go to Hong Kong to see her and talk to her. I have not have not had any contact with her since she left us in October 2006."

The Home Secretary looked at Harry for a long time and then exchanged a look with the DG. _Granting a resurrection might set a very bad precedent, but then again, it is quite unusual for someone as senior as Harry Pearce to plead the case on behalf of one of his supposedly dead officers in such a fervent manner. This is not going to be an easy decision._

"What Ms. Evershed did in relation to Cotterdam was above and beyond the call of duty. If indeed she is in danger or is interested in coming back to us, we should not reward an otherwise fiercely loyal officer by leaving her out in the cold. We need to send a message to the Chinese, loud and clear, that the British Security Service is not in any way embarrassed by the fact that Ms. Evershed is still alive. Once we get her back, the Chinese will no longer have any leverage against us."

"Harry, is it absolutely necessary for you, personally, to go? I mean, can you not send someone else?" The Home Secretary was not at all happy about Harry's request.

"No, Home Secretary, I don't think that Ruth will meet with or talk to anyone else about this matter. It has to be me. If you have concerns about letting me go, you can treat me as having been temporarily relieved of my duties whilst I go and investigate this matter further."

Harry waited for either the Home Secretary or the DG to make a comment, and when none was forthcoming, he went on.

"You may wish to reprimand or punish me for having been complicit in arranging for Ruth Evershed to abscond the jurisdiction over Cotterdam. I am prepared to resign." Harry then took an envelope out of his jacket pocket and slid this across the table to the Home Secretary. "If I fail to return in due course or if I am wrong in my assessment of the situation, you can activate that resignation immediately. I have left it undated."

"Now, Harry, let's not be too hasty …" the DG piped up.

The Home Secretary thought about it for a moment and then said to Harry, "this is a lot for me to digest in such a short time, Harry. Why don't you leave it with me for a couple of days. Let me discuss this with some of my colleagues in the cabinet and I'll get back to you. At the very least, I need to talk to the Foreign Secretary to find out where we currently stand where the People's Republic of China is concerned." The Home Secretary noticed that Harry was very disappointed with her response. "Don't worry, I will give you an answer, one way or another."

"In the meantime, you better get DS Boyd to turnover the relevant items to you as soon as possible," ordered the DG.

After he left the meeting, Harry called Connie to give instructions as to what she should do with the papers to be served on Boyd's office. Then he placed a call to DI Boyd to see if they could meet for a drink.

"Look Boyd, we've had the document decoded and it doesn't look as if it will help you catch whoever was responsible for the Hampstead Heath rape/murder," Harry told Boyd after they got their drinks and found a small table in the pub closest to Boyd's office.

"But how can you be sure? How do you know that the person responsible for preparing that document, or the person who was supposed to receive that document, does not have a connection to my case?"

"You'll just have to take my word for it. The boy was only used as a courier and probably had very little to do with either the author or the intended recipient of the document. I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful. If I do come across anything which might help your case, I will be in touch. In the meantime, Boyd, you should know that papers issued under the Official Secrets Act are being served on your office right now."

Boyd grunted. _Another dead end. This job is so full of dead ends._

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The Binyam Mohamed judgment was handed down by the High Court on 21st August 2008. Any one interested in further readings on this case can google his name and work through hundreds of online commentaries on this subject. The bits which I used in this chapter came via this link :

go to the sundayherald dot com website and search for an article posted on 23rd August 2008 in the Opinion and Debate section. I would have given you the hyperlink except that the fan fic site does not allow me to do that.

Any one who is interested in reading the actual judgment can follow the link below; there is an embedded link in this article which will let you download a PDF version of the actual judgment – 75 pages of the best legalese written by English judges.

go to the globaldashboard dot org website, key in the following words after the website address : terrorism / binyam-mohamed-high-court

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Once again, thanks for the reviews. All reviews will be gratefully received.


	7. Chapter 7

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 7

Late March 2009, London

It was more than a couple of days after his meeting with the DG and the Home Secretary before Harry heard from either of them. He met with them on a Wednesday, and it was not till the following Tuesday before Harry received a response. That must have been the longest week in Harry's life. He was antsy, he was irritable, and he walked around like a bear with a sore head, much to the annoyance of his team. He almost bit some poor girl's head off when she failed to put a call through to him and took a message instead, even though Harry was somewhere on the Grid. He only calmed down when he saw that the caller was not the one he was expecting.

Harry had tried to make it as easy as possible for the Government to approve his trip. By offering to be suspended and to resign, Harry was giving the Government a way out. He knew that if anything happened to him during that trip, then as long as he was suspended, the Government could claim ignorance of his activities and wash its hands off him, if it should come to that. There was always the possibility that Harry would be told that either Ruth could not be resurrected, or that he was not allowed to go, or both. _What then? Will I go anyway and disobey a direct order? Would I be prepared to give up my job, my life, to go and see Ruth, in much the same way as she had sacrificed herself for me? Surely the Government cannot be that cold hearted and watch with folded arms when a former intelligence officer's life is at stake? Then again, maybe those bastards would be capable of doing just that!_ Harry always knew that Ruth had done a remarkable thing, by agreeing to fake her own death in order to save him, but he never realized what incredible bravery it took to abandon a settled way of life in favour of the complete unknown until he was now confronted with the same option.

The call finally came through and it was the DG who called.

"Harry, you've been cleared to go to Hong Kong," the DG came straight to the point. "Now are you sure you don't want any back up from Six?"

"No, thank you, Peter. Sherman Tang was quite specific about not involving Six."

"Well, in that case, whilst you are there, do try and keep a low profile, won't you? If we're going to keep Six in the dark, then you certainly don't want the local press picking up your presence the minute you land. We've also agreed to restore Ms. Evershed's identity, if she wants to come back to us, but there is one condition – the resurrection will not become effective unless and until we are absolutely certain that during her time away, she has not done anything that could be remotely regarded as being treacherous to Britain. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Peter, I understand. Thank you."

"If she is ready and willing to be resurrected, contact the local British Consulate so that they can issue her with a temporary passport to allow her to re-enter this country in her own name. I will make sure that they receive the necessary instructions on this matter. Once Ms. Evershed returns to London, she will have to be debriefed, by someone other than you. You understand how it goes, standard operating procedures and all."

"Yes, of course, Peter, I don't have any problem with that arrangement."

"If she passes the debriefing with flying colours, we can then discuss her return to the Service. We've also accepted your suggestion that you should be treated as being suspended during your time away, but with pay. If everything turns out well, that suspension will be expunged from your records. Oh and Harry, I've been given your resignation letter to hold onto for the moment. Lets talk about that when you come back, shall we?"

"Certainly. Thank you, Peter, for all that you've done." Harry knew that the DG must have gone to bat for him on this occasion and he was truly grateful for the DG's efforts in this respect. He also knew that the powers that be would have reviewed both his and Ruth's service records before making a decision. For once, he was glad that he never initiated the paperwork relating to his potential relationship with Ruth; if they knew that there was a personal element involved, they might not have approved his trip.

After Harry finished his call with the DG, he called the Trade Winds Travel Agency and ordered his plane ticket. He would have liked to have boarded a plane that very evening, and he did not think that the travel agency would have any difficulty in getting him on a flight that quickly since there were at least 10 flights leaving London for Hong Kong on a daily basis. However, he needed time to finalise a couple of operations which were ongoing, so he picked a date in two days' time, which would bring him to early April, as his departure date. He would leave London on a Thursday evening and arrive in Hong Kong on Friday around noon, local time. He was about to go and speak to Malcolm about doing up a legend for his forthcoming trip when he received an envelope which was sent round by bike messenger. The envelope indicated that it was sent by the Trade Winds Travel Agency. It could not have been more than an hour since he called the travel agency and he was not expecting any package other than an invoice.

When he slit open the envelope, he found an invoice, a copy of his e-ticket which had details of his itinerary and ticket reference number, a hotel reservation voucher as well as a Hong Kong Identity Card in the name of 'Harvey Patterson'. There was a note attached to the card which informed him that with this identity card, he would be able to clear immigration formalities in Hong Kong without having to show a passport. The unspoken message from Sherman was loud and clear, _we don't care what papers you use to exit Britain, but as far as entry into Hong Kong is concerned, there is no need to make up your own legend._

The picture of Harry in the ID card was an old photo which appeared in a newspaper article some years ago, enhanced with digital imaging software. It added to the authenticity of the ID card being several years old. Harry realized that it would have taken Sherman's team at least a day to make up this ID card, not a couple of hours. This meant that Sherman probably arranged to have this identity card put together immediately after his breakfast meeting with Harry last week.

_You sly old fox, Sherman. You knew I was going to take that trip, didn't you?_

# # # # #

On the morning after Harry left London, Lucas North strode onto the Grid at 8 am. He noticed that the lights in Harry's office were not on. Harry was usually the first person on the Grid. Lucas assumed that Harry must be away at some early meeting in Whitehall. Still, he turned to the nearest dogsbody and asked him, "so, where's our fearless leader this morning?"

"Gone sailing, I hear."

"What? Didn't know he's a sailor. Are you sure?"

"Yup. Something to do with the South China Sea race."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sailing from Hong Kong to Manila. Must be a sweet ride, if the wind is in your favour."

"But, but …"

"Harry's taken some vacation time, that's all and yes, he has gone to the Far East for some yacht race." Connie had now joined the two men. "Now stop acting like gossipy school boys and round up the others. Life goes on whilst the chief's away. We still have work to do. Meeting room, NOW!"

"But Harry has not mentioned any of this," Lucas continued to mutter under his breath as he made his way to the conference room. "Very unlike him to take off so suddenly." Lucas then noticed the glare which he now received from Connie. _Well, there's no mistaking who is in charge whilst Harry's gone …_

# # # # #

Early April 2009, somewhere in the airspace over Europe

Flight time between London and Hong Kong was a little over 13 hours. Harry was sure that the invoice he received from the travel agents said business class. At the Cathay Pacific check-in counter at Heathrow, however, he was told that since the plane was not full on his flight, he had been given a complimentary upgrade to first class. Harry suspected that this must have been arranged by Sherman Tang. His suspicions were confirmed after he took his seat on the plane; contrary to what he had been told, he noticed that first class was in fact full for that flight.

During the course of the journey, Harry had a lot of time to think. His thoughts were mostly of Ruth. Harry had forgotten whose idea it was that he should get Ruth seconded from GCHQ to Section D, but he was glad that he did since his Section was in desperate need of a good analyst. Initially, he was not sure that he could trust Ruth, as there were indications that Ruth was passing intelligence back to GCHQ. Inter-departmental rivalry and all that. Over time, Ruth proved herself to be a very valuable member of his team. Ruth was often overworked but she seldom complained. Her intelligence analysis was always spot on, and more often than not, her work saved the team going down wrong tracks and making unnecessary blunders. Harry had also become dependent on her advice on a whole lot of issues.

_When was it that I started to take a personal interest in Ruth? Was it after I was shot by Tom and lying in that miserable hospital bed when I was told that Ruth had tried to pass a note to me about Oliver Mace taking over the department by telling the nurse that she was my wife and was expecting twins? Was it over the John Fortescue affair?_ Harry saw how much in love Ruth thought she was over a voice. He also saw how disappointed she was when her efforts to parade herself in front of Mr. Fortescue failed to provoke any response of any kind from that man. _Perhaps it was after the Andrew Forrestal incident. Had it not been quick thinking on Danny's part, Ruth could have died at the hands of that evil man._ How Harry hoped, at the time, that Ruth was clinging onto him instead of Danny when they finally broke down the door to Andrew Forrestal's house and saved Ruth. When he heard later that Ruth had said to Danny, "I knew you would come for me, Danny", it nearly broke Harry's heart; _she should have been saying that to me!_ But he held it all in. Harry was a leader, and leaders do not give in to personal emotions.

That was the trouble with Harry. Always the leader and always doing what he thought was right for a man in his position. Ever since his first marriage ended, he had ceased to entertain romantic notions of any kind. He had embarked on a disastrous affair with Juliet Shaw, in order to get back at his wife for having had the affair with one of her fellow teachers. The revenge did not taste sweet. It was quite bitter, in fact, when Juliet Shaw turned up much later on the Grid and used the affair, amongst other things, to blackmail Harry and coerce him into supporting her nomination as Joint Intelligence Chief. He felt even worse when Juliet Shaw resurfaced as a member of Yalta and stuck that needle into Roz Myers.

Over the years, Harry thought that he had managed to develop a heart of stone, a heart which was immune to any feelings of a personal nature. It was necessary for the job which he was in charge of doing, he told himself. Things changed when Ruth managed to chisel a place in his heart of stone. Harry knew that his job gave him a front row seat in the circus called life where all instances of man's inhumanity to man were constantly on display. Whenever he thought that it could not get any worse, he would be embroiled in some new incident where he was surprised to see that the inhumane man had sunk to a new low. At times like that, he wished he could crawl home and snuggle up to someone soft, warm and pure; it had to be _someone_ and not _something_ like a dog or a cat. Gradually, that someone he longed for morphed into Ruth.

When Harry first noticed that Ruth took a personal interest in him, he was flattered. Harry always knew that he had the loyalty and respect of his team members, but Ruth's interest in him was sweet and endearing. However, he told himself that he should not take advantage of the situation. In his job, he had managed to offend enough people in Government as it was, with his uncompromising attitude on morality issues, so he was not about to put himself in a situation where he could be accused of seducing a junior officer for his own personal gratification. His enemies would rub their hands in glee if they ever found out about Harry's feelings for Ruth, and as it turned out, Oliver Mace did and used it to his own advantage.

By the time Harry got up the nerve to ask Ruth out for dinner, he knew that he had fallen for her. Whilst the Service encouraged fraternization between officers, it was more of a problem if the fraternization was across ranks. At the time, Harry felt that with his seniority and service record, he should not have problems in convincing the DG to approve his relationship with Ruth. But it was a frustrating courtship that never made it out of the gates. Harry was elated when Ruth accepted his dinner invitation, but was plunged into deep disappointment when after that first date, Ruth told him that they could not see each other again socially because she was under the impression that her colleagues were laughing at them. She said that she did not want to compromise Harry's position at work. That night at Havensworth, in the corridor, it took all of Harry's resolve to keep from grabbing hold of Ruth and telling her that everything would be alright if only she had more faith in him, in them.

It was much later that Harry found out about Malcolm's little comment which helped to nib his budding romance in the bud. _Of course, it all made sense_._ Malcolm was Ruth's accomplice in that disastrous Scratch Mozart evening involving John Fortescue; he had gone along pretending to be Ruth's brother._ _When things did not turn out the way Ruth imagined or hoped they would, she did not smile for days and Malcolm knew this. Malcolm also knew about the almost fatal outcome of her impromptu date with Andrew Forrestal._ So when Malcolm found out about Ruth's dinner date with Harry, he was genuinely happy for Ruth. He thought that she had at last found a man who was worthy of her love and affection and told her so. Unfortunately for all concerned, Malcolm did not know that Ruth would interpret his comment as a dig at the 'resident office spinster' (Ruth's perception, not Malcolm's) and her pathetic attempt to romance the boss. If only Harry had known all this at the time, he would have done or said something to correct Ruth's assessment of the situation.

After the Havensworth conference, Cotterdam took place so fast that he did not have an opportunity to discuss this matter again with Ruth. When Ruth kissed him goodbye at that dockside, Harry knew that Ruth was still in love with him though she felt that she had no choice but to leave him. Harry was confused, but more importantly, he was heart broken. He stood totally immobilized by that dockside and for once in his life, he had no idea what he could do in order to get that tug boat to turn back. He remembered getting very drunk that night, after he resisted the temptation all day to break a wall or two on the Grid with his fist.

Sometimes, Harry would ask himself whether any lingering feelings of the romantic kind which he still carried around grew out of gratitude on his part for what Ruth had done for him. Perhaps those feelings were borne out of guilt over allowing a woman to take the fall for him; and now that woman was out there somewhere, all alone and possibly in some danger. After kicking these arguments around for a while, Harry was quite sure that that was not the case. When Harry found out that Ruth was still alive on the other side of the world, he knew that he had to go and see her, come what may. He would have liked to be able to worm more information out of Sherman about Ruth's current love life, but that was hardly appropriate in the circumstances.

Harry had a confidential discussion with Connie about his sudden plans for a vacation. Since Connie was one of his oldest friends and now one of his closest allies, Harry was totally honest about the purpose of his vacation.

"Connie, I will be taking two weeks' vacation starting this Friday."

"Oh? That's rather sudden. It wouldn't have anything do with your recent meeting with Sherman Tang, would it?"

"Well, yes," Harry confessed and proceeded to give Connie a summary of his recent discussions with the DG and the Home Secretary. "The only way to find out whether Ruth is in any trouble over that wretched document is to see her myself. It was useless trying to get anything out of Sherman Tang. Now that he knows that she had an involvement, I don't want him to think that he can do whatever he likes to her, by way of punishment or otherwise. Sherman offered to guarantee my safety whilst I'm over there."

"Well, good. Its about time you sorted out that little episode in your life." Connie was referring to Harry's feelings for Ruth and not just her involvement with the encoded document.

"The only thing is, I have a sneaky suspicion that I might be walking into a trap set by Sherman."

"Oh Lord, what makes you think that?"

"Let's just call it an uncomfortable feeling. I can't put my finger on it. He sent round that Hong Kong Identity Card so quickly, it almost felt like he couldn't wait for me to go. Do you think we should come up with a couple of contingency plans, you know, just in case I find it difficult to leave Hong Kong or something?"

"You're being paranoid, Harry. Sherman might be a lot of things, but he wouldn't have guaranteed your safety and then turn around and do something nasty to you. Don't flatter yourself. You're not that attractive or desirable to the Chinese. They already have their hands full in dealing with Taiwan, North Korea, Japan and Russia, and you're no help to them in any of those dealings. As far as I can tell, they're not about to mount any terrorist attack in Britain, so there's nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by detaining you in that part of the world."

"I knew there had to be a reason why you're the president of my fan club. I'll be thinking of you whilst I languish in a Chinese prison."

"Well, it's a dirty job but someone has to keep your head from getting any bigger. Besides, spending time in a Chinese prison might do you some good. You could do with losing a few more inches round the middle. And if you do end up being detained there, I'll see what I can do about sending you the odd food parcel from time to time. Anyway, its too late to worry about this now, given that you have already pestered both the DG and the Home Secretary into letting you go and you've refused back up from Six. This trip is not about you, its about Ruth, isn't it? You'll be fine. I'll try and hold down the fort whilst you're gone. Good luck!"

_Luck?_ _I suppose I need all the luck I can get!_ _ If Sherman was intent on detaining or punishing Ruth for her part in leaking information about China's dealings with Iran to the West, there's very little I can do by myself in a foreign city._ _And yet, Sherman did indicate that he was ready to make a trade by allowing me to go to Hong Kong and to see Ruth. _ _As for the personal issues, what can I possibly hope to achieve by taking this trip all the way across the other side of the globe? All I know is that I want Ruth back in my life, but what about Ruth?_ _What makes me think that after all this time, Ruth would still be available and interested in a life with me?_ _She's smart, she's beautiful. What's not to like? She could be married now with three kids. No, Pearce, be real, you can't have three kids in less than three years … or can you? Well, if she does have somebody else in her life now, I'll just get the official business over and done with as quickly as possible, then turn around and get out of her life._

Connie also said something else to Harry before he left Thames House.

"Have you told Sandra?"

Until Connie brought up her name, Harry had clean forgotten that he even knew any one called Sandra Smith.

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As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	8. Chapter 8

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 8

Early March 2008, London

Harry met Sandra Smith just a little over a year before he left on that trip to Hong Kong.

It was during the early hours one rainy day when Harry was being driven home. He passed by the bus stop that Ruth used to wait for her bus and for a moment, he thought that he saw Ruth sitting there, waiting for a bus. Like Ruth, the woman was a brunette with shoulder length hair, and even though she was sitting down, Harry thought that she was about Ruth's height and build. He told himself that it could not be Ruth and was about to look away when he noticed that a couple of Asian youths had approached the woman in a menacing way. The woman had been talking on her mobile phone and it would appear that the youths wanted to relieve her of her mobile phone. When Harry saw a knife being pointed at the woman, he told his driver to stop immediately and he jumped out of the car.

"Can I give you a lift?" Although the question was directed at the woman, Harry's eyes were on the youths with the knife.

The two Asian youths saw the look on Harry's face and quickly decided that they could do without the woman's mobile phone. They ran down the street and disappeared round a corner. The woman looked quite relieved and accepted his lift. Harry knew that it was against protocol for someone in his position to be giving lifts to complete strangers but he was not about to see a woman being mugged for a mobile phone without lifting a finger to help.

"You should not be using the bus at this time of night." It was 2:30 am.

"I wasn't waiting for the bus! My car broke down back there and I had called a towing service. I also needed a cab to take me home. With the rain and all, the cab company couldn't fill my order quickly enough. I have been waiting for half an hour. Thank god you came along." She then gave Harry's driver an address in Islington.

Harry took a closer look at this woman. Yes, she did resemble Ruth in certain ways but she was not Ruth. Harry could not be sure. Any woman he would care to look at these days tended to resemble Ruth in some way. He missed her so much.

"So what were you doing, driving around at this hour?" Harry did not really want to know but thought that he should make polite conversation.

"I'm a book editor with the London office of Random House, and I had been on the phone to my New York office about a new author we're about to sign. The Americans do like complicating everything, don't they? That conference call went on for 6 hours. Can you believe it? By the way, I'm Sandra, Sandra Smith."

"I'm Harry." Again, that was not the protocol. Harry should have used a cover name but everything happened so fast that he forgot to come up with one. At least he did not give his last name or declare his profession as readily as Sandra had.

During the journey to Islington, Sandra mentioned that her portfolio consisted mainly of writers of history. She also mentioned that there would be a book signing by one of her authors in a week's time at Waterstone's in Piccadilly and suggested that perhaps Harry might want to drop by.

So that was how Harry met Sandra. Harry did not intend to start a relationship with this woman and thought that he would never see her again once he dropped her off. Harry also did not plan on going to the book signing, but he found himself walking past Waterstone's in Piccadilly the day of the signing and saw a small crowd gathered outside the bookstore. He remembered that Sandra mentioned that there was to be a signing and he walked into the bookstore without thinking. When Sandra saw him, she looked very please.

"Ah, my knight in shining armor! I'm so glad you came."

_If only you knew that you're really looking at a knight of the realm._ "I wasn't intending to, I was just in the neighbourhood." That sounded lame, but it was the truth.

Sandra arranged for Harry to receive a complimentary copy of whatever book she was helping to promote that day, signed by the author of course. To show his gratitude for the book, Harry bought Sandra a coffee at the nearest Starbucks. When they parted, Sandra gave Harry her business card and asked Harry to call her sometime.

It was clear that Sandra had taken an interest in Harry and wanted to pursue this further. On Harry's part, he was unsure. Quite apart from the fact that he was not ready to let go of Ruth, there was the small matter of his job, and that tended to make things difficult where personal relationships were concerned. He remembered his own disastrous first marriage, and Tom Quinn's and Adam Carter's attempts at love affairs. He was not sure he wanted to go through all that trouble.

A month went by without any further contact. When things got particularly nasty one day on the Grid, Harry picked up Sandra's card, called and asked if she was available for dinner later that evening. He wanted to relax and did not want to do this in the company of other spooks or politicians. He had half expected Sandra to turn him down since it was on such short notice. He was quite pleased when Sandra agreed to meet him in a couple of hours' time. Harry told himself that it would be just dinner and nothing else.

Over dinner, Harry found out that Sandra was a recent divorcee with no children. From the things she told Harry about herself, Harry guessed that she was in her late 30s, possibly early 40s. Like Harry, Sandra had a demanding job and it involved frequent travel, both within the country and abroad. Harry decided that she was attractive in a way that was more immediate and obvious than Ruth was and she carried herself with much more confidence than Ruth did.

When Ruth first started working for Harry, he did not pay any attention to the way she looked. He simply wanted an analyst who had brains so whether the person who filled that position was also pretty or not was immaterial. Over time, however, after her personality and intelligence shone through and Harry got to know her better, he started to notice each of her features, her eyes, her nose, her lips, her voice … Harry had to remind himself not to keep comparing his new friend with Ruth.

Harry gave himself the cover of a senior executive with a multi-national corporation which advised on and supplied security services. He could not give Sandra his work phone, naturally. So before he went to dinner, he purchased a new mobile phone with a new sim card and gave Sandra that number as his contact number. He would keep the phone turned off at all times but would check his phone messages from time to time in case Sandra called.

Given Sandra's dealings with history writers, she had a healthy interest in current affairs and politics, both of which were Harry's favourite topics. For this reason, Harry found conversations with Sandra interesting and stimulating. At the end of the evening, Harry decided that he would continue to see Sandra.

Both of them had crazy work schedules and most of their 'dates' were arranged on a last minute basis. Harry was in no hurry to build up this relationship at breakneck speed. If pressed, he would admit to himself that something was holding him back. On her part, Sandra also indicated that given the acrimonious divorce she had with her ex, she too was not in any hurry to enter into another long term relationship, though she was interested in continuing to see Harry whenever they were both in town at the same time. With that understanding, Harry put in the necessary paperwork to have Sandra's background checked out after their second date. This was how Connie found out about Sandra. Harry had asked her to personally walk the papers down to the DG's office for processing.

Harry intrigued Sandra. After going out with Harry a few times, she concluded that he remained a total mystery to her. Here was an attractive, intelligent man in his mid fifties who seemed to have an important and powerful job. The fact that he was in danger of losing all his hair and was carrying around some extra weight round the middle did not bother Sandra. By the time a woman got to Sandra's age, how a man looked was secondary to whether or not he had a good brain and pleasant personality. To most women, power and authority could make a man much more attractive than good looks. Even though Sandra was not told exactly what Harry did on a day to day basis, she got the impression that Harry wielded great power and authority in his job. Since Harry was also an attractive man, that made him a very sexy package as far as Sandra was concerned. There was a significant age difference between them, but nowadays, that sort of thing was not considered important.

Harry told her that he had also been divorced and that it had been a long time since he had a deep and meaningful relationship with any woman. Sandra believed him and was quite certain that Harry was currently unattached since he did not strike her as a married man looking for something on the side. Harry never made any demands of a sexual nature on Sandra, at least not yet. Apart from a polite peck on the cheek when he said goodnight, he never tried to kiss her on the lips, hold her hand or had his arm around her shoulders when they went out. Sandra initially thought that he might be shy or old fashioned.

After her divorce, Sandra logged a significant number of hours at the gym in order to get her figure back. She wanted to make herself attractive to members of the opposite sex, of course, but she also wanted to regain her self confidence and working on her body was one way of going about it; having her demanding job at the publishing house was another way.

After their fifth date in as many months, Sandra became a little miffed that Harry remained oblivious to her physical charms. She was a healthy woman with healthy needs. _What's the point of having a boyfriend like Harry if you cannot enjoy a physical relationship?_ _How is it possible that this beautiful man was roaming the earth without some woman's claws already sunk into him? _He told her that he had been in the army in his younger days. _Maybe he's damaged goods._ _Could it be that he's either impotent or gay?_ Sandra could deal with either situation. If Harry was indeed impotent, there were always the little blue pills nowadays to help with the hydraulics, assuming that he wanted that sort of assistance. If Harry was gay and simply wanted female company for show, that would be acceptable to Sandra also, and she would understand and scale back her expectations. She would rather spend time with an intelligent man who could make her laugh than be with an abusive man, like her ex-husband.

The point was, she had to know. By then, it had been over five months since they started to see each other, and Sandra decided that enough was enough. The only way to get answers was to confront the situation head on.

It was late one Saturday evening. They had been out on a country walk during the day followed by a meal at a small bistro place somewhere and had gone back to Sandra's house to watch a DVD of the latest Hollywood blockbuster. As usual, Harry had fallen asleep half way through the movie. He liked these Hollywood blockbusters as much as the next man, but if he had only recently come off an op, watching something on television helped him relax and he would invariably doze off before the movie was over. Given Harry's position, his role in most ops was restricted to sweating it out in his office, waiting by the phone for news from his agents out in the field or making those hard decisions which could result in someone being killed. The tension could become very draining in some of these ops.

"Hey, its over, its OK to open your eyes now," said Sandra to Harry softly. She ran a finger down one side of his cheek and then decided to run her fingers through his curly blond hair, such as there was on his head.

Harry opened his eyes groggily.

Sandra always thought that Harry had such lovely brown eyes and at that moment, he looked so cuddly that Sandra did not think she could hold herself back any longer.

"Why don't we ever do this over at your place?" Sandra had never been invited to Harry's place.

"You have the better entertainment system and a TV with a bigger screen. You don't want to see my place, its nothing more than the usual messy bachelor pad." Harry stretched and gave a little yawn but he remained seated.

"How do I know you don't have a wife or girlfriend stashed away at your place?"

"Well, you'll never know, will you," Harry teased and inadvertently finished that remark with a pout.

That did it. Sandra held Harry's face in both of her palms and planted a small, tentative kiss on him. Harry's eyes glazed over, and Sandra took that as a sign that she could go on. She gave him two more little kisses. Harry closed his eyes and immediately drifted off to another time and place. Sandra noticed that and intensified her assault by planting more passionate kisses on Harry. She also got busy with the buttons on his shirt. Once she was able to unbutton his shirt, she started to caress his chest. Soon she noticed the bulge in his groin area, smiled to herself and started to undo his belt buckle.

Harry was initially a little surprised by Sandra's aggressive approach but he knew that he had been putting off the physical side of this relationship long enough and that he would have to deal with it at some stage. He was kind of glad that Sandra had taken the lead. Biological urges have to be satisfied, he reasoned with himself. In any case, by the time Harry thought he should resist, it was too late as he had noticed that Sandra had removed her own top and was trying to undo her bra.

When it was over, Harry held Sandra close. On the outside, it looked like lovers huddled in post-coital repose. That might well be true for Sandra, but Harry was deep in thought. Whilst he did achieve physical release, mentally, it was not as relaxing as he had hoped. When he climaxed, the woman whose name he wanted to blurt out started with an 'R', not an 'S'. It was all he could do to stifle that name and merge it with a groan.

Harry checked the time on the clock on Sandra's night table and saw that he had stayed in Sandra's bed for the obligatory half hour or so after they made love. He got up to get dressed and told Sandra that he had to leave.

"You're welcome to stay the night, you know." Sandra tried to sound as seductively as possible since she was hoping for a repeat performance later on during the night. When she saw that Harry was intent on leaving, she started to worry that maybe she had been a little too aggressive.

"No, thank you." Harry kissed the top of her head. "I'm expecting a call from head office and …."

"Where is this mysterious head office that I keep hearing about and why is it that you have to speak to them at such odd hours? Tomorrow's Sunday, you know. Most people don't work on Sundays."

"Well, I've told you since the beginning, I don't have your usual 9 to 5 job. I must go. Sleep well." Harry planted a small kiss on Sandra's cheek.

Whenever Harry was with Sandra, he kept his work phone switched off and that made him uncomfortable. He wanted to know about alerts and special codes as soon as these were broadcast. He was still undecided as to when or how to tell Sandra about his job, his real job. Sandra did not usually ask too many questions about Harry's life and was a 'low maintenance' kind of woman. Harry thought that that boded well for the day when he would finally have to come clean about his actual job.

Sandra was so pleased to find out that Harry was neither impotent nor gay that she let him go without too much of a fight. She did not realize that Harry would never spend the entire night in her bed. After having started the physical side of their relationship, they had sex on a few more occasions, but Harry would never agree to stay overnight at Sandra's. Harry felt that as long as he did not stay the night, the relationship remained at some level just below formal 'couple-hood'. This was a constant source of frustration to Sandra. In time, Sandra also began to feel that there was always an invisible third person in bed with them. She could not point to anything specific and put it down to just one of those woman's intuition thing. She had no idea how to address this problem with Harry.

By the time Harry was ready to climb on board that plane to Hong Kong, Sandra was almost ready to give up on Harry. She had not heard from him for over one month. She was sick and tired of never being able to get him on the phone; she was always diverted to his voicemail. She had enough of his evasiveness about everything that had to do with his work and his private life. Then there were his frequent and long disappearances. Whenever they went out, Harry seemed genuinely pleased to see her. Yet as the evening went on, he sometimes acted as if he had changed his mind and could not wait for the date to be over. During the occasional long walk in the countryside, Harry would often be lost in thought. Sandra accepted that in any relationship, a couple did not have to be chattering to each other constantly and that they could be enveloped in a comfortable sort of silence from time to time. Still, she thought that this was too early in the relationship for that kind of silence and she felt a little shut out when that happened.

Even though Sandra was not looking for a long term relationship when she first met Harry, by now she knew that she had fallen hard for him. Sandra told herself that if Harry asked her out again, it would be time for _the_ chat, the one which all couples have at a certain point in their relationship, the chat about their future. She was getting tired of this hot and cold treatment from Harry.

# # # #

Meanwhile, back on the plane hurtling towards Hong Kong

_What about Sandra? Connie was right to remind me about her. I guess that would depend on the current situation with Ruth. The only thing wrong with Sandra is that she's not Ruth, and now that I know where Ruth is and I've cleared the way for her to come back, I know what my preference would be. Except … I have no idea what has happened to Ruth these past few years, whether she is still interested in me, whether I still have a chance … If I have to break up with Sandra, what would I say to her and how should I go about it? I haven't spoken to her in over a month. I wonder if she'll even take my calls anymore?_

It was not so much that Harry bore any ill feelings towards Sandra for having taken the lead in pushing their relationship onto another level. Harry did not have a problem with aggressive, feisty women, having been surrounded with these women almost all his life. His ex-wife, Jane, his daughter, Catherine, Juliet Shaw, Connie James, Sandra Smith, and some of his other female friends, none of them could be described as shrinking violets by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, his heart strings ended up being held by the least aggressive one (though no less intelligent) of them all. As long as Ruth was still available, there was no doubt in Harry's mind which woman he would rather be with.

Harry had no idea how to handle this situation when he drifted off to sleep on the plane. By that time, he already had three scotches, even though he knew that having too much alcohol was bad for long haul flights, but he was troubled and needed something to numb the brain and get some sleep. The last thing he wanted was to step off that plane looking like a panda bear with dark circles under his eyes.

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My apologies to any POG and HOG whose real name is Sandra. The choice of name was completely random.

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Many thanks to those who have made an effort to leave a review so far. Reading your comments is the most fun part of fic writing.

All reviews will be gratefully received.

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	9. Chapter 9

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 9

Early April 2009, somewhere in the airspace over Hong Kong

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain again. We are about to commence our descent into Hong Kong International Airport. I'm afraid I have some bad news for you where the local weather is concerned. Hong Kong is in the middle of a typhoon and there is also a rainstorm warning in force. We will be circling for a while in order to find an appropriate way to land. We expect a lot of turbulence so I would advise that you keep your seat-belts securely fastened and have all your hand baggage stowed in the overhead locker. If we are unable to land in these conditions, we may have to be diverted to Manila. We will let you know in due course."

There was a collective groan from the other passengers when they heard about the possibility of being diverted to Manila. Harry was annoyed, but for slightly different reasons. _Bloody hell, what is it with the Chinese and storms? First they conjured up a storm to sink a few containers and now they're foisting a typhoon on me. They can't be that powerful, can they? If anyone did not want me to come, they should have simply said so. _ Harry was not really worried about the bad weather or bothered by the turbulence, having been through worse situations in his days with the army and in the early days with the Service, when he was out in the field a lot more than now. _Maybe I was never meant to see her again! _ Then again, Harry believed that if there was a god, he probably did not arrange for him to come all this way only to kill him in a plane crash caught in a typhoon.

The pilot was an experienced Cathay Pacific pilot and had flown into Hong Kong in similar circumstances a number of times in the past. He managed to land the plane after executing a few clever maneuvers. All of the passengers gave the flight crew a round of applause when they felt the wheels of the plane hit the ground. Their flight was only about half an hour late.

As soon as Harry disembarked from the plane, he found the usual suspects waiting for arriving passengers outside the arrival gate for his flight. Each of them, all airline ground staff, held up a sign with information for passengers with onward connections or information about the baggage carousel where they could find their luggage. Harry did not see any signs for 'Harvey Patterson' and started to become a little worried. Then he noticed a pretty Chinese woman in her late twenties standing to one side. She did not hold up any signs but was smiling at him. Just when Harry thought that all the natives were this friendly, she approached Harry and greeted him in a very discreet manner.

"Hello Mr. Pearce. Welcome to Hong Kong. My name is Amy Chan and I have been assigned to assist you during your stay."

Harry noticed that Amy spoke with an American accent and wondered if she did any training at Langley with the CIA.

Amy had organized one of those electric carts for him so that they would not have to walk the long distance to passport and customs control. It also meant that they did not have to mingle with the other passengers. Harry told her that he did not have any check-in luggage. After the fiasco over Terminal 5 at Heathrow the year before, there was no way that Harry was going to travel anywhere with check-in luggage ever again. Amy directed him to a special counter in order to clear immigration formalities. She told Harry that he need only show his HK ID card and that it was not necessary to fill in any landing cards.

The HK ID card which Harry was given was the old version. The new style ID contained a microchip which carried the cardholder's personal information as well as images of his/her fingerprints. The cardholder simply had to slot the card through one of the readers, place his right or left thumb on the reader, let the machine verify the thumb print, and then he would be cleared to enter Hong Kong legally. The whole procedure would be over in one minute or less. Sherman could have arranged one of those new ID cards for Harry since it would not have been difficult to obtain Harry's fingerprints after their breakfast meeting. But Sherman did not want to show off and arouse Harry's suspicions or incur his wrath unnecessarily. In the end, he simply arranged an old style ID card without the microchip. The Immigration Officer was trying to be helpful when he reminded 'Mr. Patterson' that he really ought to make arrangements soon to change his ID card to the newer version. Harry smiled and thanked him.

After immigration, Amy led him led through one of the discreet doors in the baggage area and they exited the airport through an alternative channel, a passage which was usually reserved for visiting dignitaries or pop/movie/football stars who did not want to create a scene at the Arrivals Hall. Everything went quietly and unobtrusively.

Sharon the travel agent had suggested that Harry should pack lightly for his trip, in the sense that heavy suits were inappropriate for Hong Kong weather at this time of the year. Harry had always had a problem with sweating in hot conditions, so he wore the lightest jacket he had in his wardrobe and just packed a couple of shirts, a pair of khaki pants in addition to his suit pants and a couple of polo shirts for his trip. Just outside the door but before he climbed into the waiting (air-conditioned) Mercedes-Benz Maybach, Harry got a taste of the famous hot and humid afternoon Hong Kong air. Even with the impending typhoon, the wind felt warm against his skin. He loosened his tie and took off his jacket immediately. He also took out his handkerchief to mop his brow since he had started to sweat profusely.

Like most men, Harry was a bit of a car buff and judging by the choice of vehicle which was being used to transport him, he knew that Sherman was pulling out all the stops to make him feel like a VIP. The Maybach was not your ordinary Mercedes-Benz.

"Mr. Pearce, we have reservations at the Mandarin Oriental for you."

"Where is Ms. Evershed?" Harry was not interested in putting off this meeting any longer. He remembered that he left London on Thursday evening, which meant that this was already Friday afternoon in Hong Kong. The last thing he wanted was to wait over the weekend before seeing Ruth.

"Ms. Evershed teaches at The Chinese University of Hong Kong." It was clear that Amy had done her homework and knew exactly who Harry was referring to. "Its now 2:45 pm. She should have finished her last class for the day. If you like, we can take you over to the University right away and hold the hotel reservation for you. With this typhoon coming, I don't know how long Ms. Evershed will stay in her office before she goes home for the day."

"If its not too much trouble, I would like to go the University first."

"Of course, that's not a problem." Amy Chan gave instructions to the driver in Cantonese. She tried to suppress a smile. Amy had read the file well and had no doubt where Harry wanted to go first. Some of her colleagues decided that for a crusty old spook, Harry might want to go to the hotel and freshen up first before … _Well, what did these men know._ She decided that she already liked this Harry Pearce fellow even though they had just met.

The ride from the airport to the university took almost an hour, and this was quite a long trip by Hong Kong standards, Amy explained to Harry. Initially, there was not much of Hong Kong to see, until they got off one of the longest suspension bridges in the world and Harry saw the urban, built up areas for the first time. On the right hand side, Harry saw the busy container terminals with rows and rows of gantry cranes, all ready to load and unload millions of containers a day. Amy informed him that Hong Kong had been consistently the busiest container port in the world, in terms of throughput, for the last 10 years. On the left hand side, Harry could see banks and banks of apartment blocks. Amy explained to him that those were mostly government housing estates for the low income groups. She told him that a family of eight could fit in an apartment which was no more than 100 sq. feet in size, maybe not comfortably but they would fit.

They were mostly on a couple of highways, but at one stage of the journey, they had to change from one highway to another and in doing so, passed through one district on normal roads. For the first time, Harry saw how packed the streets were with people, almost exclusively Chinese. Although Harry had been to Chinatown in London, he had never seen so many Chinese people congregating in one place at the same time. _Sherman Tang was right. This place was his turf. Any foreigner walking around would stick out like a sore thumb._ For a moment, Harry felt grateful that the Chinese had been watching Ruth's back.

Amy Chan tried to be a gracious hostess and gave Harry a great deal of information about Hong Kong during the trip, but Harry was nervous and anxious and did not retain a lot of that information. When he heard that the city had close to 9 million people stuck together on less than 500 sq. miles of land, he thought that Hong Kong gave new meaning to the word 'congestion'. He could not imagine a worse living environment and felt bad that Ruth had to put up with this kind of living condition. _If it were up to me, Ruth should be ensconced in some tastefully decorated mansion set in acres of greenery and shrubbery in the country, complete with people waiting on her hand and foot …_

As they approached the university, Amy pointed out to Harry their eventual destination and told him that they were now in Shatin, a district in the New Territories. She explained to Harry that the airport which he had landed in was located on one of the outlying islands of Hong Kong, and they went through parts of Kowloon before ending up here. Harry could see that the campus was spread over widely on one side of a hill. After they drove through the main entrance, the driver took them through what looked like a labyrinth of narrow roads, some of which were one way streets and some were not. It was all very confusing. It took a few twists and turns before the driver stopped at what appeared to be a remote corner of the university, in front of a low rise building of no more than four storeys high. If Harry had not been driven here, he would have found it quite difficult to locate this building in a hurry.

When they got out of the car, Amy looked up at one of the windows on the first floor, saw that the light was still on, and told Harry that it looked as though Ruth was still in her office.

"Mr. Pearce, Ms. Evershed's office is on the first floor. Take the stairs and turn right after you go through the doors on the first floor. Her name should be on the door. Her current name is 'Rachel Everton'. I will go and get a coffee and come back for you in say, half an hour's time?"

Harry noticed that the winds appeared to have picked up and there were now more angry dark clouds hanging overhead. He could not remember the last time he had seen the weather take a turn for the worse so quickly within a couple of hours. He was not sure how long he was going to spend with Ruth. He only knew that he did not want this woman hanging around to see his disappointment if Ruth yelled at him and told him to go away, forever. He reminded himself that everything this woman saw or heard would be reported straight back to Sherman Tang. _Where is he, anyway? Does he intend to show his face at all?_

"It looks like its going to rain quite heavily very soon. Maybe you should take the car back to town. I will make my own way to the hotel. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you …"

"No, not at all. I'm supposed to be your security detail during your stay here." Amy then exchanged words with the driver and was told something in Cantonese.

Harry had to stop himself from smiling at the thought Amy was his security detail. Like most of the other locals he had observed from his ride from the airport, Amy looked as if she had not eaten for days and her waist could not have been more than 20 inches. _How could this slip of a girl protect me?_ Then again, Harry knew all about Chinese martial arts and would not be surprised if Amy was an expert in one of those disciplines and could probably stop a speeding bullet with two fingers, or something like that. Harry was not sure whether she was carrying a weapon, or indeed whether she was allowed to carry a weapon in this city. The suit which Amy had on was a tailored suit and hugged her curves. The bulges which showed did not resemble a weapon.

"Here's my card, Mr. Pearce. It has my cell number on it. Please call me at any time, day or night, if you need any assistance. The University has its own security crew and they hate to see the likes of me hanging around. As long as you remain on campus, you should be alright. So if you think you will be okay for transport to the hotel, I will head back. Oh, I almost forgot, here's a cell phone you should use whilst you are here." Amy handed to Harry a mobile phone with a local sim card. "It will save you incurring exorbitant roaming charges if you used your own phone. I'll touch base with you later to make sure that everything's alright."

Harry understood exactly why he had been given a local mobile phone, and it was not only because of the roaming charges. The mobile phone doubled as a tracking device. It would be so much easier for the Chinese to track his movements if they already had a lock on his local sim card. Harry did not mind this at all, since he was not intending to snoop around the place anyway. As long as he was dependent on protection from his hosts, he thought that it was only fair that he should let them know his exact movements at all times.

"Is Sherman …"

"Did you need to speak with Mr. Tang? I'm afraid he's in Beijing, attending the annual National People's Congress. I can give him a message, if you like." The National People's Congress was China's equivalent of a parliament and met each year between March and May.

"No, that won't be necessary. Thank you. Have a safe trip back." Harry was relieved to hear that he would not have to see Sherman during this trip.

When Amy got back in the car, she told the driver that they should leave the university but park the car in one of the side streets just outside the university gates. She was not really going to abandon Harry Pearce on university grounds. She was not sure whether Harry would call her in the next hour or so and change his mind about needing that ride to the hotel after all. Amy might be prone to having flights of fancy, but she knew that she still had a job to do.

When instructions about Harry's visit were handed out in Amy's section, she started to fantasize out loud to her colleagues what she thought had happened to Harry and Ruth. She had developed this stupid habit during some very boring stakeout missions. She would see a passerby or hear a noise in the next apartment and start to create a back story for the people in question. This used to amuse her colleagues but lately it had become annoying to the more serious minded agents on her team.

When Amy told her colleagues she thought that Harry and Ruth might have had a past, some of the men on her team told her that she had an overdeveloped sense of romance and that perhaps she should consider changing professions and become a screenwriter instead. Others told her that she should put her money where her mouth was. They knew that Amy was rather tightfisted with her money. She never bought a round when they went out for drinks, and she never sprung for cakes and sticky buns on any happy occasions such as her birthday. So her colleagues thought that if they could make her lose some money, that might shut her up once and for all. Someone agreed to be bookkeeper.

There were two parts to the office pool related to Harry Pearce's visit. The first part was where Harry would be headed after he arrived, and the second part was whether he would end up using his hotel reservation at all. To make things more interesting, the person who was running the books offered a bonus to anyone who got both parts of the pool right. When Harry indicated that he wanted to go to the university right away, Amy gave a silent '_squeee!_' because she had just won the first part of the pool. She now sat waiting in the car to see if she would receive a call from Harry which could determine whether or not she was going to win the second part of the pool.

Amy had no idea how _on the money_ her speculations were where Harry and Ruth were concerned.

* * *

As always, I am grateful for any and all reviews.


	10. Chapter 10

**Same Disclaimer as before**

* * *

Chapter 10

Early April 2009 , Hong Kong

After Harry saw Amy get back into the car, he started to climb the stairs with his only piece of luggage, which thankfully was not heavy and had wheels. When he reached the door which had "Rachel Everton" on the front, he panicked.

_Should I knock? What should I say? Maybe I should have gone to the hotel first to freshen up. _ Harry had been sitting in a plane for something like 14 hours and did not have much sleep. He did have a quick shave and brushed his teeth on the plane before the captain made that announcement about the possibility of being diverted to Manila, but what he needed was a nice hot shower and to change out of his crumpled clothing. _Maybe it would have been better to see Ruth at home. I'm sure Amy could have arranged a meeting for later this evening._ _ Then again, if Ruth is sharing a new life with someone, a meeting at home might be even more awkward than showing up at her office looking like death warmed up. _ Amy and the car had gone by now and he would need assistance to summon a taxi to take him away. It was too late to change his mind.

It was deathly quiet in the corridor outside Ruth's office. All of the other lecturers or professors had the doors to their offices closed. There was no one else around. _What if Amy was wrong and Ruth had in fact left for the day but forgot to turn off the lights in her office? _Harry thought about Ruth being a university lecturer. _A university lecturer? Well, I guess that's as good a cover as any, though this only means that she's not working full time for the Chinese. And if she was working for the Chinese on a part time basis, what then?_

Harry took a deep breath and knocked.

The voice behind the door said, "come in." It was unmistakably Ruth's voice. Harry's hand was shaking and his heart was pounding as he turned the door knob and entered Ruth's office. After all those years of longing, yearning and wondering, there she was, sitting behind her desk, checking something very intently on her computer screen which was on a console to the left hand side of her desk.

"I'll be with you in just a sec, please take a seat," said Ruth without looking up from her screen.

It was obvious to Harry, from the tone in Ruth's voice, that the invitation to take a seat was not directed at him and that Ruth had been expecting someone else. He hesitated before taking a step forward and when he did, Ruth suddenly realized that the person standing in her room was not the one she had been expecting. She turned from her computer terminal, looked up and saw Harry. Her body shivered a little as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Oh!" Ruth's eyes flew open wide and then she stood up but did not leave her desk. "Hello Harry, what a surprise!" There was a faint hint of a smile on her face.

Harry was not sure how to describe that look in Ruth's eyes. It was a mixture of surprise and, would that be apprehension? Harry could not be sure whether Ruth was pleased to see him or not.

"Hello Ruth, its been a while." Harry did not know what else to say. It was quite a miracle that he was able to get a whole sentence out of his mouth. There was probably only one woman in the whole world who had this effect on the mighty Harry Pearce.

Harry could recall having seen a movie some years ago where people made a big deal over a line which went something like, '_you had me at hello'_. At the time, Harry thought what a silly line it was, but now, he understood completely what that line meant. He just stood there, transfixed, trying to drink in Ruth's presence as much as possible. In order to maintain some semblance of composure, Harry held on tight to the handle of his wheelie bag; he felt weak in the knees and was in danger of collapsing if he did not have anything to hold onto. At that moment, Harry felt as though the last two and a half years were just a bad dream, that it never happened and here he was, with Ruth again. But the last two and a half years did happen and this was not the Grid.

Ruth looked well, Harry thought. She seemed to have lost a little weight since he last saw her. She wore a short sleeved, white, linen blouse and one of her long flowing skirts. Her hair might be a little longer or shorter than before, Harry could not be sure, and she wore it loose. In short, Ruth had not changed that much since Harry last saw her. She was every bit as beautiful and alluring as he had remembered. _This is the one I want to be with. There can be no substitute_._ If only she is still available._

They did not hug or shake hands. Each simply stood there as if the moment was frozen in time. Harry had seen old friends who have not met each after a shorter absence greet each other with greater warmth than this awkward meeting in Ruth's office. The moment that Harry had been dreaming and hoping for was finally here, yet it turned out to be something of an anticlimax. Harry did not know whether this was a good sign or not. He did not want to move or breathe too heavily in case it broke the magic.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ruth was the first one to break out of her trance. She noticed the luggage and asked Harry softly, "have you just arrived?"

"Yes. Did I come at a bad time? You look as if you were expecting someone else." Actually, Harry found it a little odd that Ruth did not seem to expect him at all. He had rather assumed that Sherman, or Amy, might have forewarned Ruth about this visit.

"Oh, it's just one of my undergraduate students. She's graduating this year and I'm her supervisor on her graduation thesis. We had arranged to meet this afternoon to go through the last draft of her paper. She needs to hand it in next week. Don't worry, I will reschedule with her because they …"

At that moment, there was another knock on the door and a Chinese girl poked her head round the door after Ruth asked her to "come in".

"Hello Joyce. I'm afraid we have to reschedule our meeting. They have just announced signal number 8 and you should be getting home. I will email you about suitable alternative dates, alright?"

"Yes, Professor Everton. I better catch the last shuttle bus to the train station. Bye bye." Just as quickly as she appeared, Joyce disappeared and closed the door behind her.

"Professor, eh?" Harry was amused.

"No, not a real professor with tenure in the traditional sense. Its just the custom in this university, the students address every one as professor, even though I am just a lowly lecturer. I'm not on any sort of promotion track. To do that, you'd have to play university politics and spend all your time churning out research papers and giving public lectures etc. For someone like me, I can't do anything like that and I haven't published anything since I got here. My classes are well attended and my students are generous with their comments in the end of term surveys. So the university pretty much leaves me alone." As usual, Ruth rambled on a little when she was nervous.

Harry understood exactly what Ruth meant by 'someone like me'. She was a woman supposedly living under a new identity. She could not draw attention to herself by becoming some famous academic whose face was plastered over book jackets and conference pamphlets. For the millionth time, Harry regretted what he had done to Ruth, what she had to endure the moment she decided to fake her own death. In doing so, Ruth gave up any hope of ever being able to achieve her full potential in whatever field she chose to be in. That was so unfair to Ruth since she had such a brilliant mind.

"What's this about a typhoon signal? Sounds serious." Harry now remembered the captain's announcement on the plane and the terrible turbulence they had encountered as they tried to land the plane.

"Oh yes, we are in the grips of a typhoon, though this one is early this year. They don't usually hit until July or August, and its only April now. Everything shuts down when signal 8 is hoisted. You're lucky your plane was able to land, because they just announced that all planes have been grounded and the airport is closed until further notice." Ruth then proceeded to switch off her computer and shuffle some papers into her shoulder bag. "I have to get home now. How about you? Do you have a car waiting for you downstairs?"

"Eh, no." Harry was a bit thrown by Ruth's question. She was not making any attempt at keeping him around. "I didn't know about this storm, how bad it could get. I just dismissed my driver. I thought perhaps I could ask you to call for a cab, or something."

"I don't think so, Harry. Once signal 8 is up, taxis are as rare as gold dust. They lose their third party insurance cover for passengers. Even if you are brave enough to ride around in a taxi at a time like this, you can expect to pay 10 or 20 times the normal fare for the privilege of being driven to your destination. Even then, many of the taxi drivers will pick and choose passengers depending on where they want to go. This building will be closed soon." Ruth considered what she was about to say for a moment and then offered, "you better come with me then."

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly impose. I do have reservations at a hotel." Harry then remembered the new mobile phone in his pocket and wondered if he could get Amy to turn around and pick him up. It would mean a tremendous loss of face, Harry thought, but he could probably find some excuse to explain the sudden change of plans.

"Harry, I really don't think that you have a choice. I have very spacious accommodations on campus." Ruth shot a look at Harry which told him, _ don't be such a stubborn old mule_. Then she thought of something else and added, "don't worry, I do have a guest room."

Harry turned pink at that remark. _Well, since she's offered, I can't refuse, can I?_ He decided against calling Amy. He did not want to tell Ruth that he did have a choice but he chose not to exercise it since he thought that her offer was better.

Ruth smiled nervously as she led the way out of her office and to her car.

* * *

Rather than feel disappointed that her appointment with Ruth had to be rescheduled, Joyce felt elated. She had seen a strange man in the professor's room. _Who could that be,_ she wondered. _Wait till the others hear about it._

Ruth taught English Literature at the University. Unlike a subject such as Law or Medicine, which could be spoon fed to the students through detailed notes and course materials, English Literature was a course which required a lot of input and interaction with the students. The students in Ruth's classes were exclusively Chinese kids and sadly, the local boys and girls had this great aversion to voicing an opinion in class and this left Ruth very frustrated. Every time Ruth asked for a response or reaction, most of her students would try to look every which way but at her; there were some students who were always ready to respond but Ruth tried to be fair and thought that some of the other students ought to be given a chance to express a view. Local students with a better command of English and who were interested in English Literature would have been packed off overseas, way before their matriculation, for eventual entry into one of the foreign universities.

Ruth tried a variety of methods to draw the students out of their shells and this sometimes involved acting out a scene or passage from the reading materials to make things interesting for her students. She was so full of enthusiasm for the material she taught and so different from some of the other expatriate lecturers who simply droned on and on about how _they_ felt about Joseph Conrad or D H Lawrence that this endeared her to her students. In time, Ruth noticed that she seemed to have acquired a small group of fans, girls and boys who lingered in her classroom after lectures and tutorials in a bid to spend more time with her by asking her to repeat some of the points which she had already made during the lecture. Joyce was one of them.

There were only two terms in each academic year, and each of Ruth's courses lasted only one term at a time. She would get a new batch of students at the start of each term, unless it was an introductory course in the first term, followed by an advanced course on the same subject in the second term, in which case, she might get the same group over the entire academic year. So although the composition of the group might change, the fact remained that in her guise as university lecturer, she had attracted a small group of student fans.

In the beginning, she was amused by the attention she was getting, even though she was not used to it. She assumed that this was how movie stars and pop stars felt, though the difference was that those people craved this sort of adoration whilst Ruth did not. In time, she began to feel a little exasperated whenever she saw her 'fans' approach the lecture podium after class. _Don't you have other places to be, s_he would ask them. But she had to take care not to upset her students. She fully realized that nowadays, universities treated students as paying customers rather than just people seeking an education. In other words, students had to be treated with kid gloves and coddled, and everything had to be done to keep the customers satisfied so that enrollment figures would be maintained or better still, improved. That was the only way universities could continue to secure government grants and private sector donations.

Quite apart from the reticence to speak up in class, many of her students could not get through a sentence in their written work without making some very fundamental grammatical errors. In the beginning, this used to irritate Ruth no end, even though departmental policy allowed her to allocate a portion of the marks to 'presentation and grammar' in each assignment. Gradually, Ruth noticed that amongst her 'fans', there was a noticeable improvement in their written work over the course of the term. The quality of the essays she received towards the end of term were generally better than those she received in the earlier part of the term. Even though on the whole, she had little job satisfaction, she took comfort in knowing that her students were making an effort to improve their work in order to impress her. It was not on a par with the "_I stopped a thermobaric bomb from exploding in the heart of London and thereby saved millions of lives_" kind of difference, but as long as the students ended up learning something and showed signs of improvement, Ruth still felt that she was making a difference and for this reason, she continued to humour them.

_These boys and girls are in for a rude shock when they join the workforce eventually and come up against bosses who liked to throw a file or two at them, bosses like Harry. Why does everything always somehow comes back to Harry?_

* * *

Ruth usually walked to her office from her apartment. Her next door neighbours, an Australian couple who also taught in her department, had recently finished their contracts and left for more exotic places to teach. They sold their 10 year old Honda Civic to Ruth for a pittance. Ruth did not really need a car since her apartment on campus was within reasonable walking distance from her office. She needed a car for a day like today, when it rained so heavily that having an umbrella was totally useless. Given the bad weather, she did take her car to work this morning and now, she was glad that she did.

Ruth drove Harry to her apartment in her little car. It was only a five minute drive and neither of them said very much during the short journey. The heavy rain reduced visibility and made it difficult to navigate the winding roads which went uphill in certain parts and then downhill again. Harry did not wish to distract Ruth. He did take a good look at Ruth's hands on the steering wheel and noticed that she was not wearing anything which remotely resembled an engagement or wedding ring. In fact, Ruth was not wearing any rings.

_If she has a live-in boyfriend or husband, she wouldn't have so readily offered me a place to stay for the night, would she?_

Ruth's apartment was on the eighth floor of a building which was part of a cluster of buildings on the other side of the hill, an area slightly off campus where staff accommodation was located. Not all teaching staff could obtain on campus accommodation since there was only a limited number of apartments available. Teaching staff who had families with them preferred to use part of their salary package to rent premises off campus.

Ruth led the way into her apartment. Just as she told Harry, it was a spacious apartment with high ceilings, a sensible layout and just the right amount of furniture in it. Harry was relieved to find that it was not some matchbox size apartment of the kind Amy had described during the journey from the airport. It did not make him feel claustrophobic. He could not see any decorations of a personal nature which gave a clue as to the occupant's personality. There were a couple of paintings on the wall but Harry doubted that they were put there by Ruth. _This apartment must have come furnished._ Harry then surreptitiously searched for signs that the apartment was shared with a man and was quite relieved to see that there was no such evidence in sight.

All of the buildings in this compound faced Tolo Harbour which meant that there was nothing between the apartments and the blue sea beyond. This gave Ruth's apartment a very open feel, though with a typhoon raging outside, it also meant that the apartment bore the full brunt of the wind and the rain.

Harry was hoping to start a proper conversation with Ruth but before he could do so, Ruth was in a hurry to go elsewhere.

"I need to go to the supermarket in the next building before everything shuts down. Here are some fresh towels. Please feel free to take a shower and put your feet up. I will be back, hopefully in 20 minutes or so. Don't worry, nobody will disturb you. Turn on the TV if you like, though you might need to click around a bit before you'll find the cable channels. Today's papers are still on the coffee table. I must rush."

Ruth showed Harry which room he would be staying in, made sure that the water heater in the bathroom was turned on and then headed down to the supermarket immediately. By the time Harry finished his shower, he was alone in this apartment. Whilst going through the pockets in his jacket, he found Amy Chan's card and his new mobile phone. _ Oh, that reminds me … I must call her about my hotel reservation_.

"Amy, this is Harry Pearce. I will be staying with Ms. Evershed tonight so I won't need any transportation. Can you please let the hotel know?"

"Yes, Mr. Pearce. I didn't think that they would put up signal 8 that quickly. I will touch base with you tomorrow. Have a safe evening."

Amy Chan was lying. She had known about signal 8 being hoisted before she left Harry; her driver had heard the news on the radio in the car and told her about it. She withheld this information for her own benefit. After receiving Harry's call, Amy called the Mandarin Oriental and cancelled Harry's reservation for the evening. She then told the driver that they could now leave their little hideout and that he should drive her home. She started to do some mental calculations as to how much she might be collecting from her colleagues. The book runner did not include a caveat to the effect that all bets were off in case of inclement weather and now he lived to regret this oversight. Amy realized that she had not quite won the second part yet, since Harry Pearce only said that he was spending that first night with Ruth Evershed. He did not say that he would not require a hotel room after that first night.

* * *

'You had me at hello' came from the movie, _Jerry McGuire_.

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As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	11. Chapter 11

**Same Disclaimer as before**

* * *

Chapter 11

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

Whilst waiting for Ruth to return, Harry was tempted to do some snooping around the apartment to see if Ruth had done other work apart from her day job. He decided against that course of action very quickly since the last thing he wanted was a fight with Ruth if she returned and caught him doing something inappropriate. She had been gone now for over 20 minutes and could return at any moment. So he parked himself on one of the sofas in the living room and picked up the newspapers lying on the coffee table to read. There was quite a selection of local as well as foreign newspapers.

After a while, he had the distinct sensation that he was being watched. He lowered the newspaper to see a rather large pair of green eyes staring at him. The eyes belonged to a very chubby British shorthair blue cat who came out of nowhere and was now sitting on the coffee table. He must be getting on in years since his jowls had started to droop. He did not look friendly at all. When Harry tried to pick up another newspaper to read, the charcoal grey cat reached out one paw as if he wanted to stop or scratch Harry. Harry was quicker, though, and managed to get the second newspaper before the cat could do any damage to him. Harry was not about to be intimidated by a cat, of all things, but he felt uncomfortable sitting in a strange apartment being given the evil eye by this animal.

The keys turned and Harry looked at the door anxiously, hoping that it would be Ruth. A Filipino woman in her late fifties entered the apartment. She was startled to see Harry sitting in the living room, with the cat perched on the coffee table, staring at Harry. Harry now remembered that Amy had mentioned, during their drive to the university, that the Filipinos were the largest group of foreigners in Hong Kong and that most of them were employed as domestic helpers or drivers. After a moment, a look of recognition came over the Filipino woman's eyes.

"Oh, you must be Harry," she beamed at Harry. "Hello, I'm Dalane, I look after all the apartments in this building for the teaching staff. I just came in to check on Ms. Everton's windows, to make sure that they have been closed properly. With this typhoon, I don't want any leaks inside the apartment."

"Hello …" Harry was surprised that this woman not only appeared to know who he was, but also knew him by his first name. _Maybe she ran into Ruth outside the apartment and Ruth told her about me._

"I have seen your pictures many times in the past. I'm glad to meet you, finally ." Dalane gave Harry a dazzling smile.

_What? _ _How is that possible?_

Dalane saw that Harry was perplexed and said to him, "come." She then led Harry into Ruth's study.

In contrast to the living and dining room, Ruth's study was stuffed full of books and papers everywhere, either on the bookshelves or stacked neatly on the floor. This was clearly Ruth's domain. Harry saw that Ruth had installed an Apple computer in her study, complete with the 30 inch Cinema Display as her monitor. Harry was not surprised by the brand of computer used by Ruth since they used Macs on the Grid. Harry thought that the 30 inch monitor was a bit of an extravagance. _The university must pay their staff well. I wonder why she needs all this computing power?_ He did not know that Apple Computers had a policy of giving deep discounts on their hardware and software to academics and students.

Dalane moved the mouse and the screen sprang into life. Harry found himself staring at a desktop image which was, well, himself. The screen also showed a dialog box which asked for the username and password. After staring at the screen for a few minutes, the screensaver software kicked in and again, he was looking at various photos of himself flying out from the four corners of the computer screen.

He was both alarmed and pleased to see his pictures on Ruth's computer. _Ruth must still have strong feelings for me, otherwise why would she use my photos as a desktop image and as her screensaver?_ But here was the problem. _How did she get hold of those photos? Who took the photos? Why didn't I know that my picture was being taken?_ They appeared to be surveillance shots of him going about his business in London. As far as surveillance shots go, they were quite good though Harry was a little surprised to see that he seldom smiled. He also noted that those were recent photos of him, not photos which Ruth might have gotten before she left the Grid for good. _If she can still manage to take surveillance photos of me, she must have been working for the Chinese._ Harry's heart sank at the thought that this would put a much more complicated spin on things.

Harry could take a stab at guessing Ruth's username and password but he did not have Malcolm's skills in that respect. He did not feel that he had the right to intrude on Ruth's privacy, much as he was anxious to find out what sort of work Ruth had been doing for the Chinese Secret Service. He considered briefly whether he should go through the various piles of paper on Ruth's desk, but he knew that Ruth would not have sensitive documents lying around in plain sight. In any case, he could not run the risk of Ruth returning at any time and finding him in her study. And then there was Dalane, still hovering close by.

"Whenever I clean this desk, I will see your pictures. I asked Ms. Everton once a long time ago who this was and she told me that it's a man called Harry, someone who means a lot to her. I only know that sometimes, Ms. Everton would stare at these images for hours. I'm glad to finally meet you in person. I guess you will be staying here tonight?"

"Yes, I will be in the guest room." Harry gave an embarrassed little smile.

Dalane gave Harry a doubtful look but did not comment on that arrangement.

"In that case, I better put fresh linen in the guest room. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, that's alright. Thank you."

Of all the teaching staff Dalane worked for over the years, she like Ms. Everton the best. Like most of the other academics, she was always polite and kind to Dalane, but unlike the others, she always looked a little sad when she did not think that any one was looking at her. Sometimes Dalane would joke with Ms. Everton that she should go out more, but those kinds of conversations never lasted long.

Harry went back to his newspaper whilst Dalane busied herself with fixing up the guest room. Harry could no longer concentrate on his reading. _How did she get those photos?_

* * *

The supermarket was a small one located in the basement of the building next to the one which housed Ruth's apartment. The buildings were connected by a covered walkway so Ruth did not have to worry about getting wet. The small supermarket was only meant to stock the bare essentials in life, for the convenience of busy academics who could not make it to the bigger supermarket over on the main campus.

It never ceased to amaze Ruth how seriously the people in this city took a typhoon. These things rarely lasted more than one day, two at the most. Most people who lived in high rise apartment blocks in the urban areas had nothing to worry about. The city was served by two very efficient power companies and all power cables were underground. So there was no question of the power going out at a time like this. All of the other essential utilities continued to be available, such as water, gas and telephone services. For most people, it meant an unexpected day off work. _Why do they always feel the need to stock up on everything as if the world was going to end?_

Ruth was not worried about what to serve Harry for dinner tonight. She was expecting her domestic helper to come in and she could depend on her to put something together in a hurry. But Ruth had no idea what Harry usually had for breakfast. She seemed to recall that back on the Grid, whenever they pulled an all-nighter, Harry tended to have something simple, just a croissant or a toastie, and coffee, for breakfast. She wondered whether that had changed. She knew that she still had some eggs and cheese in the fridge, so she picked up some bread, an extra carton of milk and a jar of instant coffee. She then checked the wine section briefly and decided against buying a bottle of wine for dinner. This little supermarket did not have a good selection of wines and only stocked cheap South American imports. Ruth tasted these before and decided that they were mostly vinegar masquerading as red wine. She found a bottle of scotch in the shelves just behind the cashier. This was regarded as an expensive item for poor academics and was usually kept under padlock and key. It was probably not Harry's preferred brand, but she felt that she did not have a choice. She asked the cashier to unlock the cabinet and show her the bottle.

Then again, Ruth told herself that she did have a choice. _I don't need to buy the liquor for Harry. Why am I going out of my way to ensure that my guest for the evening is well catered for? _ _Why is Harry here? How did he find me? Do I really want to see him?_

Ruth gave the bottle of scotch back to the cashier but before she had a chance to explain that she did not want it, the cashier had rung it up as part of her purchases. The poor girl was under so much pressure to get through all her customers before the supermarket closed that Ruth felt bad about asking her to cancel that last item. There was such a long queue at the checkout counter that Ruth did not realize that she had been gone now for almost an hour. She simply paid for everything and left with her purchases.

* * *

January 2007, Hong Kong

Horace saw Ruth for the first time at the Havensworth conference. He literally bumped into her at the business centre when Ruth went downstairs to pickup that ice hockey DVD for Ros so that Ros could ingratiate herself with the US Ambassador. She gave Horace an apologetic smile and that left quite an impression on Horace. One of his colleagues from the London office later told him that she worked for MI5. Horace did nothing about this encounter until a couple of months later when he read about Ruth's 'death' in the London papers and her apparent involvement with the Cotterdam scandal. He thought that it was an odd item and decided to dig deeper. Again, he did not do anything until another month went by when one of his mates from the Paris office, who knew about his interest in Ruth, sent him a text,_ "Just saw a dead woman walking around in Rouen. Wanna come see?_'. After getting clearance from his boss, Sherman Tang, Horace flew to Paris immediately.

In the early days, in order to make sure that Ruth had no problems settling into her new life, Horace spent a lot of time with her. One night, after one too many glasses of wine, Ruth started to wax lyrical about her old boss and how he could do no wrong. Horace became a little sick of hearing this and bragged to Ruth that he could probably order surveillance photos of Harry in London without Harry even knowing about it.

Ruth knew that it was not difficult to arrange for surveillance photos to be taken of anyone anywhere and without the subject's knowledge. For a start, there were all sorts of telephoto lenses available in the market. For photos taken at close range without the help of sophisticated equipment, if the photographer simply took one or two photos at a time and left the scene immediately after taking the shots, the subject would not be able to pick up on the fact that someone was following him or taking his picture. Besides, every mobile phone was equipped with a camera these days and at any time, there were millions of tourists traipsing around London and most had cameras hanging around their necks. One could not get too paranoid every time someone pointed a camera at somewhere.

Ruth was intrigued by the thought that she could get photos of Harry. She did not have any to start with and she left London in such a hurry that she was not able to take many of her personal belongings with her. She thought that having a few photos of Harry might help her feel less homesick. So she egged on Horace and said that Harry would probably know about it before the photographer's finger even left the click button.

A few weeks later the photos arrived, and the moment Horace gave them to Ruth, he regretted what he had done. He saw how ecstatic Ruth was over the photos and how she would not stop looking at them. He suddenly understood how Ruth felt about her old boss. _Way to go, you moron. This is definitely not how you score brownie points with the woman you're interested in_, Horace told himself. He decided that he would not get any more photos for Ruth. More importantly, he stopped because of the bollocking he received from Sherman Tang. The Chinese agent who took the photos for Horace became worried that he might lose his job and snitched to Sherman about Horace's little request.

"You are not to use official resources for private use, is that understood?" It was one of those rare occasions when Sherman raised his voice. Horace knew that this was a sign that he was extremely upset. "Can you imagine the international incident this could cause, and the resulting embarrassment to our Government, if it becomes known that we have been taking surveillance photos of such a senior member of the British Secret Service, for no apparent reason? I thought you had more sense than to do something as stupid as that. That thing inside your head is called a brain. It wouldn't hurt if you used it from time to time!"

Horace had led a rather sheltered social life up to this point in time. He only ever went out with Chinese women, but living in the West meant that the sample group of Chinese women who were available was rather small, and the ones he did go out with did not keep him interested long enough to develop any long term relationship. Some were too Chinese, others were too Westernised. He had a lot of Western friends, but he never considered going out with a non-Chinese woman, that is, not till he bumped into Ruth.

After Horace relocated Ruth to Hong Kong, he did not pursue Ruth actively since he felt that she needed time to settle into her new identity, and he did not think that he should take advantage of the vulnerable state she was in. He himself was busy with work commitments throughout 2007 and 2008 and saw very little of Ruth after that first month they spent together. When he eventually left Ruth on her own, he gave her a phone number which she could use to contact him, for example, in case of emergency. He noticed that Ruth never used that number. The two of them did not communicate by email or text messages at other times. Each of them knew that spies did not maintain friendships by leaving a paper or email trail. Even so, Horace did try his best to keep in contact with Ruth. Even though he was not stationed in Hong Kong, every once in a while, he would make sure that his itinerary required a stopover in Hong Kong and when he was in town, he would take Ruth out for dinner. He was pleased that Ruth never turned him down.

After receiving those photos of Harry, Ruth set about building a cocoon in her study, one in which she could pretend to live the life she used to have. It was not difficult given the way the world wide web had managed to close the distance between people and countries.

In order to keep in touch with her old world, she read every available online newspaper from Britain, including the tabloid press. If something was not available online, she would take out a hard copy subscription. She even subscribed to Time Out London and knew more about shows which were available in the West End than she ever did when she actually lived there. She listened to the BBC world service and every other British radio station which was available on the internet. It was quite surreal listening to London traffic news and weather whilst sitting 6,000 miles away. Traffic reports such as this eased her homesickness somewhat :

_A lorry has overturned and shed its load on the M1 so expect delays _…

Ruth watched only the BBC channels which were available on the local cable network. It did not matter to her that most of the programmes shown were repeats since she never spent that much time watching television anyway when she lived in London. Her work schedule on the Grid did not permit such extravagances. Now she had all the time in the world to catch up on these TV shows, some of which were more than ten years old.

At other times, she would simply stare at Harry's photos on her computer and dream about what might have been.

* * *

As always, all reviews will be gratefully received. And to all who have already left a review, a big THANK YOU.


	12. Chapter 12

**Same Disclaimer as before**

* * *

Chapter 12

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

Finally, Ruth returned. After she set her purchases down on the kitchen counter and had a few words with Dalane, she came into the living room and laughed softly when she saw her cat staring at Harry. She swooped the cat up into her arms and looked at the two of them.

"So, have you been giving my friend a hard time?"

Harry was not sure whether Ruth was reprimanding the cat or him.

Ruth was cradling the cat as if she was holding a baby and started to scratch his belly. The cat immediately placed both of his front paws on top of Ruth's hand, as if to say, _just keep it there, lady, and don't stop until I tell you to_. He also started to purr, loudly, and closed his eyes to enjoy his tummy rub. Harry could have sworn that the cat opened his eyes a slither and shot him a look which told him, _'she loves me, not you'_. _This jetlag business must be worse than I thought, why am I now jealous of a cat?_

"Harry, meet Nikoo, the love of my life. I inherited Nikoo when Leonie, my Kiwi colleague across the hall, went home after her contract expired. This is one cat with some serious attitude issues. He was abandoned by his previous owner in 2003 when Hong Kong went through the SARS health scare (see Note below) and people believed, erroneously, that cats and dogs could pass the coronavirus to humans. I'm told that at the time, a lot of people simply threw their pets out the door! By the time Leonie found him, his stomach had been sliced open by some other animal and he was near death. That's why he has a major problem with strangers. He finds it difficult to form attachments and now that we've lived together for a while, he has become very possessive of me."

_Give me half a chance, Ruth, and I'll show you how possessive I can be._

"I don't have too many visitors, and when I do, Nikoo here always gives them his patented stare. Just ignore him. The vet thinks that he's around 10 years old now, I just think he's becoming a grumpy old man," Ruth smiled at Harry.

_I might not be your boss any more, Ruth, there's no need to be rude._ Harry took that remark in the light hearted manner it was intended.

Harry was busy processing all this new information. _A cat is the love of her life. This must mean that Ruth does not currently have a man in her life. Not too many visitors. Even better._ _ Wait, get a hold of yourself, Pearce, you're here to get answers to more important questions._

"I see that you have also met Dalane. That woman is a force of nature. I don't know how I would cope without her. She runs the most efficient Filipino grapevine on campus. I know more about my colleagues in the university from my conversations with Dalane than through any other means. If only the Grid has someone like her, out gathering intelligence …"

Harry laughed with Ruth over this. _Never mind Dalane, its you that I want back on the Grid, but how do I even begin to broach the subject?_

Nikoo could smell something cooking in the kitchen, so he terminated the tummy rub session and headed to the kitchen, with his tail held high, in the hope that his dinner might be ready. _Its never too early for a meal._

"I don't usually keep alcohol in this apartment, but in honour of your visit, I went and got you a bottle of scotch. I assume that that is still your favourite poison, though this might not be your preferred brand. You will have to bear with the quality though. This is, after all, a university supermarket and they don't usually have the good stuff on their shelves. They don't think that us poor academics can afford the more expensive brands. Shall I fix you a drink?"

Harry was not sure whether he should be doing any more drinking for now, but he did not want to turn Ruth down. He could tell that Ruth was rambling more than usual and he wanted to put her at ease.

"Yes, that would be nice, thank you."

After giving Harry his drink, they both sat in the living room and neither said anything. Since Harry appeared in Ruth's office a couple of hours ago, she had excuse after excuse of not talking properly with Harry. There were a million questions which Harry wanted to ask but he did not know where to start. It worried him that Ruth had been doing most of the talking, and that she mostly talked about banal matters. It almost felt as if Ruth did not want a proper conversation with him.

After another awkward silence, Harry could not bear the suspense anymore.

"You look well, Ruth. Are you enjoying your life out here?" As soon as those words left his lips, Harry knew that he had made a bad start.

"It took a little getting use to, but its alright, I think that after almost three years, I have finally acclimatized." _What kind of question is that? How the hell do you expect me to enjoy a life which I did not choose?_

Yet another awkward silence. This time, Ruth decided that she had to deal with the elephant in the room.

"So, Harry, how did you find me?" Ruth gave Harry an awkward little smile.

"Sherman Tang told me ..."

_Sherman Tang! I should have known._ "Ah, Sherman Tang."

"So you know him." Harry's pulse quickened. _Another stupid question. You already know the answer to that one._

"Yes, unfortunately I do, though I wish I didn't. Did he organize this trip for you?" _What did Sherman say to Harry to make him come?_

"Yes, more or less. I'd rather assumed that he might have told you that I was coming." _So, why didn't he? And what did she mean by wishing she had never known him? Has he done something to her?_

"No, I haven't spoken to Sherman for some time now. In fact, I have only spoken to him no more than once or twice since I moved here." Ruth remembered her last meeting with Sherman only too well and the bitter taste which it left in her mouth. The awkward smile she had on earlier had now disappeared.

_If she hasn't seen Sherman for some time, could it be that she's not working for them after all? In that case, how did she end up getting involved with that encoded document?_ Harry then took a deep breath and came straight to the point, "I understand that you may have been doing some work for the Chinese Secret Service."

"No," Ruth said emphatically. "No, I haven't." Ruth was puzzled by this question. _Just because I know Sherman Tang doesn't mean … is that what Sherman has told Harry? How could he?_

_Please don't lie, Ruth, and make things harder for me than it is_. "Are you sure about that?" In a bid to rein in his own emotions, Harry had abruptly put on his serious face when he put this question to Ruth.

"Of course I am." Ruth was surprised by the directness of Harry's first question and a little hurt by the accusatory tone in his voice when he posed the second question. "Why would I lie about something like that?" Ruth shot Harry an angry look. "I see, you've come to check up on whether I have joined the Chinese team. And if I have, what difference would that make to you or MI5? You will recall that I had to leave the Service in rather unfortunate circumstances. I was not aware that there is a restrictive covenant on my ability to work for another intelligence service." Then Ruth caught the slightly apologetic look on Harry's face and decided that she might have over-reacted. She remained quiet for a couple of minutes, and when she spoke again, her tone was softer than before. "I have not been spying on my own country for the Chinese, if that's what you are wondering. After I left London, I was not expecting to be able to work in this field again, and I haven't. Even if I were interested, I wouldn't have chosen the Chinese as my new employer."

"Ruth, I'm not accusing you of spying on Britain for the Chinese. Let me re-phrase my question : have you been trying to pass intelligence about China's dealings with Iran to the West?" _Please, Ruth, tell me the truth and put me out of my misery._

"What? I don't understand what you mean." Ruth now looked completely baffled.

"We recently came across a document which contained rather sensitive information about China's dealings with Iran over arm sales and apparently, you have an involvement in this matter." Harry then started to relay to Ruth the events which took place in London one week ago, the discovery of the encoded document, her fingerprints on the document and its plastic envelope, and his meetings with DS Boyd and Sherman Tang. Harry only gave an abridged version to Ruth. He did not touch on his subsequent meeting with the DG and the Home Secretary, not yet.

"… oh … that document … I see … oh no …" Ruth was now looking quite upset. "I guess I should have been more careful about handling that document." The colour had drained from Ruth's face and she began to look extremely worried. "But I had no idea that the document was going to be used in that way or that it would end up in London. When Sherman asked me to decode it back in January, he never mentioned any of this." Ruth felt really miserable about the whole affair.

"_He_ … asked _you_ … to _decode_ … the document?" asked Harry. These were only small points of detail but it made a great deal of difference to Harry.

"Yes." Ruth nodded.

"Are you quite sure about that?"

Ruth nodded again.

"And he asked you to do this in _January?"_

"Yes." Ruth remembered the date well.

"Do you know why he asked you to do that?"

"He told me that the information was compiled by a rogue agent on the Chinese team who wanted to earn more money by selling Chinese secrets to the Americans. He didn't want the other agents to know about it, so he decided to get an outsider to decode the document." By now, Ruth knew that she had been set up by Sherman Tang; she also knew why but she did not want to discuss that aspect with Harry.

_Well, that all makes sense now, doesn't it?_ Harry realized that if Sherman already knew what was in the document but still allowed it to be carried to Britain by the teenage illegal immigrant, then the value of the information contained in that document had to be suspect in which case, it made it a whole lot easier for MI5 to honour the agreement he had made with Sherman. _So Sherman had been economical with the truth. _ _All that hand wringing over wanting to retrieve the document from me and not letting the Americans have the document. Was it no more than just a ploy to dangle Ruth in front of me, to see if MI5 wanted her back?_ _ If that was the case, then I was right, it was a trap._ Harry thought about Sherman's professed aversion to the use of honey traps and realized that he had been caught in one himself, a perverse version of the traditional one. _But it's only a honey trap if Sherman knew how I felt about Ruth. He couldn't have known that, or could he?_ Thinking back on that breakfast meeting, Harry now realised that Sherman never said anything about Ruth's involvement or that she was in danger. He just told a few half truths and made a series of oblique remarks, and then he let Harry connect the dots himself. The only conclusion which Harry could draw from all this was that Sherman had enough of babysitting Ruth after all this time. _He couldn't wait for me to come and get her. But why, and why now?_ _Why did Sherman bother with the elaborate way in which this whole thing had been set up?_

Harry then noticed that he had spent so much time deliberating Sherman's intentions that Ruth was looking at him anxiously for a reaction to what she had just told him.

"When we found out about this document, I'd assumed that you might have been involved with the Chinese Secret Service these past few years, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to lay your hands on this kind of intelligence. I thought that you might be in trouble, Ruth, when I let slip to Sherman that we found your fingerprints on this document. Had I known that he was the one who got you involved in the first place …" Harry swallowed the rest of what he was going to say, since it was beginning to sound like he would not have come if he had known that Ruth was not in any danger after all. Harry knew that he had botched this interrogation. He noticed that Ruth had lowered her eyes and was now refusing to look at him. Still, Harry had to be sure of the extent to which Ruth had been entangled with the Chinese Secret Service.

"How much work have you been doing for the Chinese since they moved you here?"

"None. That was the only time, and it was only done as a favour. You have to believe me." She raised her eyes and looked intently at Harry. Her voice had started to shake. Any minute now, she was going to burst into tears.

Harry held her eyes for a moment before he replied, "I do believe you." He was relieved to know that she was not in any danger, and had not been mixed up with the Chinese Secret Service in any way. He knew that Ruth could be a good actress and could pull off the most convincing of lies. He had seen her in action before, for example, over the Angela Wells incident, and when she got on the phone, on occasion, to spin stories in order to worm information out of unsuspecting members of the public. But Harry also felt that he knew her well enough and that she would not lie about something like that, not to his face. Ruth was looking so distressed that Harry did not have the heart to interrogate her further. He made a mental note to grill her for further details when she regained her composure. _The DG was right, I am absolutely not the right person to debrief her._

Then something occurred to Ruth and now she looked horrified. "Harry, does this mean that London now knows that I'm still alive? Does that not complicate things for you?"

Now that Harry was sure that Ruth still had her allegiance in the right place and that she did not have any involvement with the Chinese other than that wretched document, he told her about his meeting with the DG and the Home Secretary, again, an abridged version of what had been discussed.

"Its alright, Ruth, everything's fine. I've explained your part in relation to the Cotterdam mess. You've been exonerated. You can have your life back. We can go to the local British Consulate as soon as they open for business and a new passport will be issued to you, in your own name. You'll need to be debriefed properly once you get home, of course, by someone else within the Service, but I'm sure that that would be nothing more than just a formality." He thought it best not to mention that he was currently regarded as being on suspension, or that he had offered to resign, in order to resurrect 'Ruth Evershed'. _That information should only be dispensed on a need-to-know basis, and right now, she does not need to know this._

Ruth looked bewildered and stared first at Harry and then at her hands for a long time before she finally looked up again and said, "thank you, Harry, I don't know what to say." She often wondered whether this day would come and if it did come, how it would take place. That Harry would come and bring her home was her favourite daydream, of course, but now that it was happening in more or less the way she had imagined, she was not as ecstatic as she thought she would be, not when she could not go back to the world she used to know.

Harry knew that Ruth was not the emotional type but for such a momentous occasion as getting your life back, he thought that she could have shown more of a reaction than a simple thank you. _She's being too polite. I don't want her to be polite._

"That's alright, it's the least I can do for you, after all that you went through for me." Harry very much wanted to lean over and give Ruth a hug, or better still, kiss her, but given the subdued response from Ruth, decided that it was probably not the right thing to do for now. They were interrupted by Dalane who announced that dinner was ready. It was probably a little early for dinner, but it had been more than 6 hours since he had something to eat on the plane and there was an empty feeling in Harry's stomach, so he followed Ruth to the dining room.

The ever efficient Dalane had already set the table and laid out a green salad. She made sure that Harry knew that the salad dressing was home made, one of her own special concoctions. The main course was roast chicken, also prepared by Dalane. Once Harry and Ruth started on their dinner, Dalane came in to say goodnight and left for the evening. Ruth explained to Harry that Dalane had her own quarters elsewhere in the building.

During dinner, again the conversation was polite but not intimate. Ruth appeared to have calmed down after that little question and answer session with Harry. Harry tried to put Ruth at ease by telling her about what had happened to several of her colleagues since she left, and about some of the new members in Section D. Ruth nodded and made some comments along the way, but overall, Harry had the feeling that she had either heard it all before or was not really that interested. So Harry tried a different approach and made discreet enquiries about Ruth's life since she left London. Ruth was a little more comfortable talking about her life in the university.

"I've kept a low profile since I got to this city. I seldom venture outside campus. I don't like crowds, and if there is one thing that Hong Kong is not short of, its crowds everywhere."

Harry knew that Ruth did not have this problem before. He could guess at the reason why she had developed this aversion to crowds, that it must have something to do with having lived a life on the run.

"I rarely socialize with the Chinese teaching staff, and its not because I don't want to," Ruth continued. "Even though most of them speak good English, they would rather not spend the entire evening chatting to each other in English for the benefit of just one or two English speakers included in any gathering. That's why the expatriate staff are rarely invited to events organized by the Chinese staff." Ruth pushed her food round the plate but did not eat very much of it. "I tend to stay away from the British teaching staff. They are old timers who have retained a very colonial, holier-than-thou attitude which I don't like." Ruth also did not want to give them the chance to interrogate her about her past and her credentials. "I'd much rather hang out with the Aussies and the Kiwis since they never take themselves too seriously and are always good for a laugh. On my long term breaks, I travelled to parts of China once or twice, and to the southern hemisphere to visit with some of my colleagues."

Given the number of times that Ruth had mentioned colleagues who had finished their teaching contracts and moved on, Harry knew that she would not have been able to form any lasting friendships with these people. He got the overall impression that she had kept a very lonely existence in this town these past few years, and he felt really sorry for Ruth. He wanted so badly to hold her hand and to tell her that this would all change in future, once she's back in London, once she's back with him. But Harry noticed that Ruth remained distant and aloof, and there was nothing in her demeanour which suggested that her hand was available for holding by anyone. He wondered whether she was still angry or concerned about their earlier conversation.

It was a very simple and light dinner, and it was over much too quickly as far as Harry was concerned. He noticed that Ruth did not say anything yet about returning to London.

"Ruth, are you glad that you will now be able to go home to London?"

"I'm not sure," Ruth sighed, after taking a moment to consider this question. "You know what they say, sometimes you wish so hard for something, yet when that thing is within reach, somehow you don't seem to want it anymore."

Harry felt a lurch in his stomach. _She doesn't want to go home?!_

"I see. Do you have other plans?"

"Hmm, I don't know. I wasn't expecting this so I haven't really thought about it."

"Do you feel that you're already settled in this part of the world?" _Is there someone else here who is holding you back?_

Ruth did not want to continue with this discussion and stood up to clear the dishes from the dinner table.

"I'm not sure I want to discuss any of this right now. I mean, I want to thank you, Harry, for having made all these arrangements. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I really don't know how to react to this new development just yet."

Polite, yet distant. This was not at all the reaction that Harry was expecting.

"You must be very tired by now. You mentioned a long time ago that you never sleep well on planes. Why don't you try and get some sleep. The sooner you rest, the sooner you will recover from jetlag."

Harry did feel tired but he was unhappy about being dismissed by Ruth in this manner. _That's the second time today she's done that! Is she avoiding me because she still has something to hide, or is it simply because she doesn't want to see me again? We've already ruled out any involvement with the Chinese Secret Service, then what can it be? _ Harry refused to consider the other possibility, that Ruth did not want to see him again.

There was nothing more he could do. _Perhaps it would be a good idea to leave Ruth alone with her own thoughts for now. Maybe the shock of my sudden appearance bearing news that she could have her life back was a little too much for her to digest. Maybe both of us should have a good night's sleep. Maybe in the morning, there might be an improvement in Ruth's attitude._ Harry did not argue and went to his own bedroom.

* * *

Note : The SARS health scare blew up in 2003. A mysterious new virus came out of China, infected a lot of people in China, Hong Kong, Canada and a few other countries, and killed many of those who were infected. If you saw the Dustin Hoffman movie, 'Outbreak', you will have a good idea what Hong Kong had to go through that year. Cats and dogs do carry the coronavirus at birth, but there is no conclusive evidence to support the claim that they can pass this virus to humans. A large number of pets were abandoned at the time. There was one report out of Beijing that an owner became so scared that he threw his dog from his 8th floor apartment and killed the animal. Any one interested in further reading can look this up on the web or Wikipedia.

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As always, any and all reviews will be gratefully received.


	13. Chapter 13

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 13

December 2008, Hong Kong

Just before Christmas 2008, Horace came to Hong Kong and as usual, took Ruth out for dinner. Ruth had not seen very much of Horace during that year since he had been tied up with security work related to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That event was a logistical nightmare for the Chinese Secret Service. All of a sudden, China had to open its doors to hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world, many of them foreign spooks masquerading as athletes, coaches, games officials, reporters and tourists. All of their credentials had to be checked out and processed. In addition, all real or potential threats of terrorist attacks, either from domestic pressure groups or from foreign sources, also had to be checked out and neutralised. Horace must have accumulated enough frequent flyer miles during 2007 and 2008 to be able to fly round the world, free, at least three times. Ruth was glad when Horace finally called and announced that he was in town.

As always, they had a pleasant dinner in one of those "private kitchen" restaurants which seemed to have sprung up all over town in the last 10 years. These were restaurants located not on street level but in one of the upper floors of an old commercial building. The chef in some of these places was usually someone who had retired from one of the bigger, more well known restaurants but who was still interested in cooking in a less stressful environment, or they were operated by exceptionally good amateurs who were passionate about fine dining. All of these 'restaurants' relied on word of mouth for publicity. Not all of them were properly licensed to operate as a restaurant since it usually took forever to line up all the right licences. These operators tended to jump the gun and open for business first and worry about bureaucratic red tape later. None of them had a liquor licence so they encouraged customers to bring their own wine and usually refrained from charging a corkage.

Seating at these places was often limited in order to circumvent Fire Department regulations. Ruth liked these places because it gave her a chance to sample different types of cuisine and get out of the university for a couple of hours. Ruth felt sorry for these establishments because every time she went to one with Horace, she noticed that they were the only ones there. She wondered how they could survive on such meagre income. She did not know that whenever Horace took her to one of these places, he would always book out the whole restaurant in order to make sure that they were the only diners that evening. Horace liked these places because it meant that he could have a private conversation with his dinner companion without being worried that someone sitting at the next table could listen in.

After dinner, Horace drove Ruth back to her apartment on campus. Horace never asked to go up to Ruth's apartment for a nightcap or anything else. Just before Ruth left the car, Horace took a flash drive out of his jacket pocket. These things were so small these days that Ruth did not immediately recognize it for what it was.

"Ruth, I have something for you," said Horace when he handed over the flash drive to Ruth. Ruth liked the way Horace continued to use her old name instead of her new name.

"Oh, a Christmas present. You shouldn't have, Horace, " Ruth teased. The way Horace handed over the flash drive to her and how she found the item landing in her open palm reminded her of that time, half a lifetime ago, when she had to give a flash drive to Harry on the bus one evening. She quickly pushed that thought away. Ruth knew that it was not a present since it was not gift wrapped. She became immediately curious about what the drive contained. _Ooh, more photos of Harry, I hope._

"I'm really not sure whether you should see what's on this drive. But if you find out at a later date that I had known about this situation and neglected to tell you, you might be mad at me. Then again, you might be mad at me anyway for giving you this information. Remember, I'm only the messenger, if I can be described as such, so please don't hate me for doing this. I better get going now. Have a happy Christmas, Ruth." Horace winced when those last words left his lips, since he suspected that Ruth was unlikely to have a happy Christmas after she saw what was on the flash drive.

Ruth thought that Horace had been behaving in a very odd manner all evening. She had never seen Horace so unsure or conflicted about anything before. As soon as he was gone, Ruth went back to her apartment and straight to her computer to run the flash drive through a number of antivirus software. Even though Horace had promised her that her apartment and computers were not bugged, Ruth was always cautious and wanted to make sure that the drive did not have any malicious software which might have been piggybacked on whatever it was that Horace wanted her to see. After clicking on the new drive image, she saw that it was a series of JPEG files, i.e. photos. On her Mac, iPhoto started immediately and asked if she wanted to import those photos. She clicked yes. When she saw the images lined up in the viewing panel, her world came crashing down around her.

The first photo showed Harry and a woman leaving some West End theatre, both laughing like they really enjoyed each other's company. Another photo showed Harry with his hand on the small of this woman's back, ushering her into a waiting car. There was one photo which showed Harry walking away from what looked like the woman's house, with the woman still standing in the doorway. Given the time of night that photo was taken and the way the two of them were dressed, Ruth did not need to think too hard to imagine what they must have been doing earlier that evening. _Was there another photo which showed Harry kissing this woman goodnight by the front door?_ If there was, Ruth knew that Horace must have done some judicious editing and left it out of the collection. In fact, Ruth noticed that Horace seemed to have omitted all photos of Harry kissing this woman in public.

The other photos were more of the same and from the background and the clothes they wore, Ruth knew that the photos had been taken over a period of time. _There could be any number of reasons for Harry to be photographed with this woman, _Ruth told herself. _Perhaps he was just escorting her to some formal function._ But no, judging by the way they were dressed, and the number of different places they were photographed in, it was clear to Ruth that Harry had been out with this woman in a private capacity. _She has to be Harry's new love interest._ Ruth stopped breathing for a few seconds.

She considered briefly whether the photos had been 'photoshopped". After all, digital images could be manipulated in any number of ways these days with the right software. But Horace had given her a flash drive containing these images. Ruth remembered that when Horace first gave her those photos of Harry in January 2007, he only let her have hard copies. Ruth had to scan those images before she could import them into her computer for use as desktop and screensaver images. This time, she was given soft copies. This could only mean that Horace wanted her to know that nothing had been done to the photos, that they were genuine. In any case, she could not see why anyone would send her doctored photos of Harry with another woman.

Ruth clicked through the photos again. She stared at the image of a happy Harry smiling at his new girlfriend. _Did Harry ever look at me in that way?_ Ruth could not remember. Photographs could be misleading, since they only caught the behaviour of a person in a split second and might not be truly representative of how that person felt at the time. Harry could be smiling at someone in one instance, only to be yelling at that person in the next second; the photographer might not have caught the second image.

Ruth then examined the woman in those photos. She was attractive and stylishly dressed in all of the pictures. She looked like the kind of woman that Harry would take to an embassy ball, if Harry attended functions of that nature; in other words, a woman that a man would be proud to have on his arm in public and at official functions. Ruth did not know whether she had the qualities to be some man's arm candy. That was something that had never bothered her before, but at this moment, it did.

The woman's expression in one photo caused Ruth particular distress. She was looking at Harry with unabashed adoration. This was a look Ruth was familiar with. More than once, she had given that look to Harry though it seemed that Harry never acknowledged it, not till that day on the Thames House roof when Harry abruptly changed the subject and asked her out to dinner. Ruth knew then that Harry was aware of her feelings and was ready to reciprocate. She was so happy about this that she accepted his dinner invitation without hesitation, even though it was rather presumptuous of Harry to have booked a table first before he asked her out. Looking at this photo, Ruth knew that this woman was clearly in love with Harry.

A mixture of jealousy and anguish welled up inside her and that was when the tears started, and once it started, she could not stop crying. It felt worst than a death in the family. It felt like some part of her had died. As far as relationships go, she and Harry never even started to have a proper one. Even so, she was hurt by the sight of the new woman in Harry's life. For the first time in years, she questioned whether she did the right thing in faking her own death in order to save Harry and his career. She did it without expectation of any show of gratitude on Harry's part, but still, somewhere at the back of her mind, she was hoping for … Truth be told, Ruth did not know what she was hoping for. During the long, lonely nights since she left London, Ruth would often wake up in the middle of the night and then find it hard to go back to sleep. There were a variety of things which usually kept her awake, the main one was whether she was doomed to this new existence forever. She would try and make herself go back to sleep by dreaming about the day when Harry would come and get her. It was only a dream, one which she knew would not come true. The difference was, she now knew for certain that Harry was not coming, in fact, nobody was coming for her.

She told herself that she had no right to expect that Harry would remain unattached, since there was no prospect that they would ever be together again. When they parted, there was no promise that each would seek the other out eventually for a reunion. In fact, she stopped Harry from telling her '_something he should have told her a long time ago'_. How did she expect Harry to react to her departure? _I should have known that this day would come, that Harry would move on._ But knowing that something was not yours was not quite the same as being confronted with concrete evidence that that something would be denied you forever. The finality of the situation hit Ruth hard.

Ruth did not blame Horace for sending her the latest batch of Harry photos. In a way, she was glad that he did, since she would not have known otherwise. This was not the sort of information she could glean from the internet. Ruth was grateful that she had received the photos at the start of the Christmas holiday break, which meant that she could be holed up in her apartment for three or four days without her being missed by any one. Dalane became quite worried about Ruth during that time. Ruth did not eat or drink very much. She simply shut herself in her study for days on end. She did not even let Nikoo into the study until he meowed incessantly outside the door in protest. Dalane had no idea what had happened and did not know what to say or do to alleviate whatever pain Ruth was feeling. She was relieved when Ruth finally emerged from her own private hell a week later and started to eat properly again.

It was not so much that Ruth would ever contemplate killing herself over this new development. It would be ludicrous to kill herself over Harry since nothing ever happened between them. Denial, anger, depression, acceptance. Ruth went through all the known stages of grief, except that "bargaining" was not an available option. There was nothing she could do about losing Harry to this woman. _How can I mourn the loss of something I never had to begin with?_

Ruth deleted the new folder from iPhoto and considered briefly whether she should scrub the hard drive clean of all photos of Harry. She had so many other things on her hard drive that it would take a while to relocate elsewhere the items which she needed to keep before the reformatting process could begin. She decided to postpone the housecleaning till another day. _Next week, I'll reformat the hard drive …_ She shoved the flash drive to the back of the bottom drawer.

When Horace noticed that after two years in Hong Kong, Ruth had failed to establish a romantic liaison with anyone, he knew that Ruth was still living in the past. He did not know the extent of Ruth's relationship with Harry, since after that first time, Ruth refrained from discussing Harry in front of Horace again, and he never pried. By now, Horace had known for some time that Harry Pearce was seeing someone, but he did not do anything about that because he felt, initially, that it was none of his business, and he did not want his boss to know that he had disobeyed a direct order from him. After the Olympic Games were finished and he had more time to himself, Horace thought long and hard about the matter and decided that perhaps seeing the photos would help Ruth take her head out of the sandpit, look around and consider other possibilities. He ran the risk of being alienated by Ruth once she saw the photos, but it was a risk that he felt he had to take.

# # # # #

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

At 1:30 am, Harry was woken by the wind and the rain which had been pelting against the windows ever since he had arrived in Ruth's apartment. The rain was coming down so hard that it felt as though someone was standing outside with a hose which was aimed directly at the windows.

He was in a strange city and in a bed which was not his own. He looked at his watch to check the time. He remembered that Ruth had packed him off to bed around 8:30 pm local time, which was much too early for his bedtime. But he was tired after the long flight and must have dozed off. Initially, it felt nice to be in a bedroom which was air-conditioned, but now, it felt as though he was sleeping in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator. He got up to switch off the air-conditioner.

Harry thought about his trip so far. He was disappointed that it was not going as well as he had hoped. Often times a person might remember an old friend with greater fondness than the friend might have for that person, with the result that when they meet up again, that person would be let down by the lack of warmth and affection on the part of the friend. Harry wondered whether this was the case here, that in all those years, he remembered Ruth with greater fondness than Ruth had for him. Although Ruth tried to act in a jovial manner, Harry was bothered by the distinct lack of warmth and affection on Ruth's part throughout the afternoon and earlier in the evening. _If she's not keen on seeing me again, how do you explain the photos on her computer? What was it that Ruth said earlier about going home to London? Something about wishing hard for something and then not wanting it? That means that she did want to go home but … what or who could be stopping her from wanting to go home?_

Even though it was as wet as could be outside, Harry's throat felt like the Sahara desert. Since he had received such an underwhelming reception, Harry was not sure whether he should be paddling about Ruth's apartment in the middle of the night in search of water. After fidgeting for a while, he decided that he had to go to the kitchen to get some water. When he opened the door to his bedroom, he noticed that the door to Ruth's study was half closed and the light was still on. Although he told himself that he should not disturb Ruth, his hand reached out to knock on the door before his brain managed to get the message across that it was probably not a good idea to do so. Before his knuckles reached the door, it swung open and Harry jumped.

"Harry, hi, sorry if I startled you. Did you need something? Can't sleep with all this commotion going on outside?"

"I just needed a glass of water."

"His lordship over there," Ruth motioned to Nikoo who was curled up on top of Ruth's laser printer, "knew as soon as you got out of bed and has been staring at the door for some time, which is why I knew you were standing outside."

Harry looked over Ruth's shoulder and got another dose of "evil eye" from the grey cat. _That bloody cat must think that he's a dog or something!_

"You don't look as if you've slept at all. I had no idea that university work was that demanding." Harry noticed that Ruth's eyes appeared to be a little moist. He was not sure whether the moisture was the remnants of a yawn or that she had been crying but he did not say anything.

"Right, water. This way. Maybe I should also make some tea for you. They say that Chinese tea helps you relax after a long flight; or would you rather have English tea with milk and honey, or lemon and honey?"

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As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	14. Chapter 14

**Same disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 14

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

"Ruth, is everything alright," asked Harry in the gentlest voice he had in his repertoire. "Are you alright?" The two of them were standing in Ruth's kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil. He had already been given his glass of water.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask, Harry?" Ruth gave him a nervous little smile.

"I couldn't help noticing your reticence about going home to London earlier this evening. I don't know what seems to be the problem, but if you need to talk about it, you know that you can always talk to me." _Please, talk to me._

"That's very kind of you to offer, Harry, thank you. Everything's fine. I'm sure that as always, my enthusiasm about going home will erupt at a most inappropriate time," said Ruth in a feeble attempt at cracking a joke.

Harry looked at her with concern. _I wish you would stop being so bloody polite with me. Something is troubling you and you're not telling me what it is. How can I get you to open up to me again, after all these years?_

"So, Harry, you look well." _OK, you want to talk, I can do small talk._

"As well as can be, I guess, though the pressure on the Grid seems to get worse over the years." Harry gave a little shrug.

"You could have sent someone else, you know, to let me know that I've got my life back. I'm sure Six still has a presence in this town and they could have run this errand for you, or you could have asked the local British Consulate. I remember how busy things used to get on the Grid, and the pressure …" There was another nervous little smile.

"You're in this position because of me. I had to come. I owe this to you. As long as we're going to give you your life back, I should be the one to come and tell you." _I'm also here to collect you. Stop pushing me away!_

Again, they both fell silent for a few minutes. The kettle came to a boil. Ruth dumped a couple of tea bags into two mugs and poured hot water into each.

"This concept of 'going home' seems quite strange at the moment." Ruth looked out the window at the wind and the rain.

"Why's that?"

_Home, how strange that sounds. Home, London, where there's always the chance that I'll run into the two of you, holding hands and enjoying each other's company. Home, work, the Grid. How am I ever going to be able to walk into your office again, with or without knocking, knowing that you could be on the phone with her, talking in hushed, affectionate tones like most couples do._

"I have nothing to go back to, no job, no house, probably no more friends, no …"

"I know it may be hard to rebuild a life, but I'll be there to help you, every step of the way," Harry suggested gently. "I still care …" Harry did not finish the sentence because Ruth gave him a look which implied that she thought she had just heard the most offensive comment ever. Very quickly, she looked away again. _I see, am I the problem here?_ "It is, of course, your choice. You don't have to return to London if you have other plans. Do you? Have other plans, I mean."

"Well, I don't know." Ruth thought carefully about what she was going to say before telling Harry, "I only know that I can't stay in this university or this city forever. I have been to Australia and New Zealand during my summer breaks. There are areas in New Zealand that are so remote and desolate that you can hide there forever and no one will be able to find you." Ruth strained the teabags and discarded them.

"But you don't need to run and hide anymore." _You can come home._

"I'm not exactly marching triumphantly back to London, am I, given all that's happened. And now with my involvement with that stupid document, I'd hate to think what the Service thinks of me."

"You don't have to worry about that Ruth, I will make sure that everything will be sorted out. You won't be discriminated against as far as the Service is concerned." Harry tried to sound helpful and positive, but given his own precarious position within the Service, he was not really sure whether he could deliver on that promise.

There was no response from Ruth. All that the two of them could hear was the wind outside the windows continuing to howl and the rain splashing against the windows. Harry wondered whether the windows could hold up to all that pounding.

"Are you worried about the debriefing?" Harry wanted to keep Ruth talking.

"No! I have done nothing in the last few years but teach. I know I haven't done anything wrong. They can interrogate me all they want …" _I have done nothing but teach a bunch of Chinese kids who have enough problems dealing with the English language to start with, never mind coming to grips with any literary works written in English,_ Ruth wanted to add. _I'd like to see how the boffins in charge of the debriefing can turn that into questionable or even treacherous behaviour_. But she did not want to sound too derogatory about her students since she knew that their lack of English skills was not really their fault, it was more the fault of the whole education system in this city. _Those kids' problems with the English language should have been fixed at a much lower level before they were allowed to progress to university._

"I will make sure that they offer you your old job back." Another promise he might not be able to make good.

"At this point, I'm not even sure that I want to go back to the Service." Given all that had happened, Ruth was getting a little sick and tired of all that cloak and dagger stuff associated with spooks. "Even if I pass the debriefing, they will probably want to quarantine me for a while before allowing me anywhere near sensitive information."

_But why wouldn't you want to rejoin the Service?_ Harry started to panic. "I will not have you stuck doing clerical work when you are capable of doing so much more. I will speak to someone about this."

"Don't, Harry. You should learn to pick your battles and stop rattling your sabre against dragons real or imagined. You must have stepped on a few toes in trying to reinstate me, so in the overall scheme of things, not getting my old job back should hardly register as a blip, as far as you're concerned." Ruth continued to look out the window as if the darkness outside was infinitely more interesting than looking at Harry. She then looked down at her mug of tea. "If I do go back to the Service, let me rebuild my career my way. I'm sure they'll transfer me out of whatever menial post soon enough. It wouldn't be the first time that I've had to prove myself to skeptics." She turned her head and gave him a knowing smile, and he had the decency to look a little contrite because he knew that Ruth was referring to the early days when she had just arrived on the Grid.

"If you're inclined to go somewhere else, do you have any traveling companion in mind?" _I will follow you to the ends of the earth if necessary._

Ruth did not answer. She did not think that Harry had the right to ask this question.

Harry tried again. "I never got to tell you what I wanted to say to you, Ruth, before you left."

"I'm not sure that there's any point in saying anything now." Ruth wrapped her hands round her mug of hot tea as if she was feeling cold and needed something warm to hold onto.

There was no air-conditioning in the kitchen and the room actually felt a little hot to Harry. He thought that he noticed a small shudder on Ruth's part. He was confused by this response. "Ruth, I still feel …"

"Please, Harry, don't. A lot can happen in two and a half years. Things change, people change," she sighed. "Perhaps its best to leave certain things unsaid. Even if I do take back my old life, a man in your position should not be consorting with the likes of me. You forget that I'm now a woman with a scandalous past!" Ruth vaguely remembered hearing about Harry's knighthood but she could not recall whether she had read it on the internet somewhere, or it was Horace who told her about it.

"That's absolute hogwash! I will consort with whoever I damn well please. You have done nothing to be ashamed of. I'm sure that the overpaid spin doctors in the Service's press office will be able to deal with any enquiries from the public, should any one pick up on the fact that you're back in circulation. Don't be so hard on yourself, Ruth. Isn't it about time you stopped caring about what other people say? If I gave a damn about what people have been saying about me over the years, I would have shriveled up and died a long time ago." Harry was feeling more than a little desperate. "Don't you feel the same way about me as befo …"

Ruth shook her head very slowly, and then she said softly, "I know that you've moved on, Harry, and I'm very happy for you, really."

_She knows about Sandra?! But how could she have known? Did Sherman tell her about Sandra?_

"I have seen the photos … she looks … very attractive." If she was indeed happy about this situation, she was certainly not showing it.

Harry felt at once exasperated and defensive. "What photos? Have you been putting a surveillance team on me? I believed you when you said that you weren't working for the Chinese Secret Service. I saw those photos of me on your computer. How long has this been going on?" _Well, at least I now know why you have been behaving in this way towards me since I showed up in your office earlier in the day. You're upset about my new girlfriend._

_He saw the photos on my computer? That had to be Dalane's doing._ As much as Ruth appreciated Dalane's efficiency in terms of being a domestic helper, she knew that Dalane could be a terrible gossip. When she told Dalane about the pictures of Harry on her computer, she made Dalane promise that she would not tell any one about them. From then on, Ruth always remembered to switch off her computer when she went off to work in the morning though sometimes she would forget. This morning, she must have forgotten to switch it off because she saw how bad the weather was becoming and was in a rush to get to class. In all fairness to Dalane though, she did not break her promise. She did not show the photos to just anyone, it was only to the person who was in the photos.

"Do you think that these days, I still have the power to organize a surveillance team to follow you around London? I already told you earlier, I have not been, nor am I currently involved with the Chinese Secret Service, or any other intelligence organization, for that matter." Ruth shot Harry an angry look. A moment passed and she decided that perhaps Harry deserved an explanation for the photos. "The photos were given to me by a friend, a friend in the trade."

Harry now remembered that Sherman did mention something about one of his agents. "The one you met at Havensworth?"

She nodded. Actually, Ruth could not remember having met Horace at Havensworth since from what Horace told her, it was just a fleeting encounter and she was preoccupied with other thoughts during that op, thoughts about her relationship with Harry. _Sherman must have told Harry about Horace._

"The same one who got you out of Paris?"

"Yes," Ruth replied impatiently.

"How close are you to this new friend?" _Who is this Chinese agent and does Ruth have a relationship with him? Why has he been supplying Ruth with these photos? Does Sherman know about this?_

"Why should you care?" _You already have someone else, why should you care? It shouldn't be any of your business anymore._

"I do care." Harry tried his hardest to apologise for his little outburst. "I'm sorry about what I just said, about not believing that you never worked for the Chinese Secret Service. I do believe you …"

Ruth took a deep breathe and shook her head again. "Look, Harry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be saying these things to you. Its just that my life has been a little crazy recently. I have no right to expect anything from you. I'm really glad that you have met someone, someone you like. I hope you're very happy with her." Again, there was no joy in either her face or in her tone.

Harry felt like he was drowning. Never in a million years did he imagine that his reunion with Ruth would end up like this.

"Ruth, its not a question of right or obligation when you deal with affairs of the heart. You should know that I still have strong feelings for you, and if you'll have me, I'd like to try and build a relationship with you."

"You already have a girlfriend, so please stop giving me false hope that we still have any kind of a future." Ruth did not think that Harry was the sort of man who would have a few love affairs going on at the same time. She was certainly not the kind of woman who would juggle a couple of lovers at a time, and she really did not like the thought that she had to compete with this woman for Harry's affections.

"I don't give false hopes …"

"Please don't make me feel any more miserable than I already am."

"I'm miserable without you." At this point, Harry was looking quite miserable.

In the past, whenever Ruth found Harry looking tired and miserable, she would have this incredible urge to take him in her arms, run her fingers through his hair, cuddle him and tell him that everything would be alright. She never did that, of course, for it would have been inappropriate on her part. She saw that look of misery and pure desire in Harry's eyes when they ran into each other that night in the corridor at Havensworth, and it took every ounce of her resolve to reject Harry's overtures, turn around and go back to her own room. The last time Ruth saw that look of abject misery on Harry's face, she was on a tug boat going down the Thames and out of Harry's life forever. That look haunted her for a long time and during the first year after she left, she would often see that look in her dreams and wake up crying. Sometimes, dreaming about Harry helped Ruth sleep, but more often than not, it kept her awake.

And now, there was that look again. _How can I hug you and hold you when you belong to someone else now?_ She also remembered her recent unpleasant meeting with Sherman Tang. She got the message from this disagreeable old man loud and clear, '_go home, woman, there's nothing for you here'_. Ruth felt the bile rising up in the back of her throat. _He has no right to meddle in my private affairs. How dare he! How did he convince Harry to come for me? How presumptuous of him to think that I can be collected by Harry like some errant child! _Frustration over these matters, the emptiness in her life since she left London and missed opportunities in general quickly turned into anger. She resumed looking out the window. She felt like hitting something or someone.

When Harry tried to put his hands on her shoulders in order to get her to look at him again, Ruth flew into a rage. "You can't do this to me …" Ruth was going to hit Harry on the chest with her fists but he managed to grab hold of both her arms and stopped the impending blows. He then pulled her into a tight embrace in the hope that he could hug away all the hurt that Ruth was feeling now. Ruth broke into sobs.

"Let me explain …"

"No Harry, you don't owe me any explanation." Ruth struggled to free herself from Harry's arms whilst trying to stop the sobs.

"Let me be the judge of that, please. You have this annoying tendency of always stopping me from saying the things that I want to say to you. Right now, neither of us has anywhere else to be, so please hear me out."

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As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	15. Chapter 15

**Same disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 15

January 2009, Hong Kong

Shortly after Horace gave Ruth those photos of Harry and his new girlfriend, Ruth received a visit from Sherman Tang. She had no prior warning that he was going to call on her. The doorbell to her apartment rang late one evening and there he was, asking if he could have a word. It was all done very quietly and discreetly, in true spook fashion.

"Mr. Tang, how nice to see you." Ruth had only met him once or twice before when she first arrived in Hong Kong, though she had heard a lot about this man from Horace. She was surprised and suspicious of why this man was calling on her at such a late hour and in this manner.

"Ms. Evershed, I hope you are well." Sherman gave Ruth one of his smiles.

"I am, thank you. What can I do for you?"

"I have two purposes in coming to see you today. The first is a matter of a personal nature, and I hope you will forgive me for being frank with you. The other is more business related."

"A matter of a personal nature?"

"Yes, let me come straight to the point, Ms. Evershed. It has been brought to my attention that Horace has recently arranged for some photos of Harry Pearce to be sent to you."

"Yes, he did." Ruth knew better than to deny that she had the photos. Nothing escaped Sherman Tang's attention. She knew about the scolding which Horace had received when he arranged for that first batch of photos to be given to Ruth. _Poor Horace is in for another severe reprimand._ _ I wonder if Sherman Tang is going to ask for the flash drive to be handed over. _Ruth start_e_d to feel a little embarrassed about the whole thing._ How much does he know about me and Harry?  
_

"You are an extremely intelligent woman, Ms. Evershed. I'm sure you know what was Horace's intention in sending you those photographs."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean." Ruth was not sure where this conversation was heading but whatever direction it was, she was sure that she was not going to like it.

"Horace is infatuated by you. Please don't pretend that you are not aware of this."

"Horace has been a good friend to me, but there is nothing going on between us. I'm sure you already know that." Ruth could feel herself blushing.

"The problem is not with you, Ms. Evershed, its with Horace. I think he is entertaining some notion that perhaps he could now develop a relationship with you."

"I'm sure that I haven't done anything to encourage him in that way, Mr. Tang."

"I'm sure you haven't, though in this sort of situation, you may not need to have taken any active step to encourage him. Forgive me for being blunt, Ms. Evershed, but there cannot be any future between you and Horace."

Ruth was completely caught off guard. _What is he talking about?_

"You see, Ms. Evershed, Horace has a bright future within our Security Bureau. His maternal grandfather marched alongside Chairman Mao in the Long March (see Note 1 below). Both his parents are high ranking Communist Party cadres. He has the right pedigree in every respect to climb to a higher station within the Security Bureau, indeed within the Central Government. As you know, Horace has degrees from Harvard and Cambridge and is fully bi-lingual. He has a good understanding of the Western mindset, having spent years living in the West, yet his allegiance remains firmly with China. The development of modern China needs young men like him. I really would not want to see his career trajectory compromised in any way."

"Why would Horace's friendship with me affect his career path?"

"If Horace were to have a romantic liaison with a non-Chinese person, that would not be acceptable to the powers that be in Beijing and would effectively end his career within the Security Bureau. Your background also complicates matters considerably, as I'm sure you'll understand."

Ruth understood exactly what Sherman was saying. _No Caucasian woman would do, specially if that woman used to work for Britain's MI5._

"I love Horace as if he were my own son, and I would not want to see him jeopardize his career in any way. China would never accept some one like Sonia Gandhi (see Note 2 below)."

"But this is ridiculous, we haven't even started to …" Ruth was becoming a little angry by now. _How dare this old man show up in my apartment and tell me who I can or cannot see? Who does he think he is? And to be compared to someone like Sonia Gandhi? Give me a break!_ At this point, Ruth began to feel sorry for Horace, who probably was not aware that Sherman Tang was paying her this visit.

"Please don't misunderstand me, Ms. Evershed. I am not as old fashioned or autocratic as you might think. The purpose of my visit today is this : if you tell me, honestly, that you have feelings for Horace and would not be adverse to developing a genuine relationship with him, then so be it. I will not meddle, but I will stop wasting time in grooming Horace to succeed me, and I wish the two of you the best for the future. On the other hand, if you say to me that Horace has only a one sided infatuation with you, in other words, your feelings for him will never progress beyond that as a friend, then leave it with me, I will help Horace see the error of his ways. But either way, I would be grateful for an answer from you."

Ruth remembered the terrible arguments that Harry used to have with Tom Quinn over his love affairs, especially his involvement with Christine Dale of the CIA. She could not understand Harry's motivations at the time, though she could now see where Sherman Tang was coming from. She did not know what to say.

It was not that Ruth had anything against Chinese men, she just never thought of them _in that way_. Ruth enjoyed her outings with Horace because she found Horace interesting and entertaining. She treated him as a friend, a 'mate'. He had spent more than half of his life living in the US and in England and was about as 'westernised' as he could be. But through offhand remarks and throwaway comments, Ruth knew that at heart, Horace remained staunchly Chinese and was proud of his work as a Chinese spy. Horace had told her that he was amongst a rapidly expanding group of educated Chinese who was keen to see China become a world power again and they would do anything to achieve that goal. Ruth knew that if Horace had to leave the Chinese Security Bureau, he would be miserable.

The real reason why Ruth liked spending time with Horace was that he was always able to bring her the latest gossip about what had been happening in the world of espionage and intelligence, such as the CIA's latest blunders, new schemes about to be hatched by MI6, the latest situation in the Middle East, and of course, any news regarding Harry and Section D. Through Horace, she heard about what had happened to some of her former colleagues, like Zak, Jo, Adam and Ros. With these conversations with Horace, Ruth felt that she still had a connection with her old world, albeit a tenuous connection.

"There is no pressure within the Security Bureau for our agents to marry, of course, but if one were to marry or have any sort of romantic liaison, that person has to be a person with the right background, you see. Besides, in my time, I have seen many inter-racial marriages flounder as the couple grew older and their respective cultural differences start to drive a wedge between them, differences which they were able to ignore in their younger days when they thought that they were in love, or more likely, in lust, with each other."

Ruth wanted to tell Sherman that he was wrong in his assessment. Marriages of same race couples have no better chance of surviving than mixed race marriages. At the same time, having been in the business, she knew how conservative the spy trade could be – as one came up through the ranks, you were encouraged to do everything you could to minimize the possibility that you might be put in a compromising position where your private life was concerned. Ruth said nothing. She did not want to be disrespectful to Sherman, and she did not have strong enough feelings for Horace to warrant having a debate with Sherman on this subject at this time.

"Can I assume from your silence that Horace means nothing to you other than as a friend?"

After a long while, Ruth gave in and nodded. "Horace is and will remain a dear friend who helped me out in times of need. I do not want to see his career compromised on account of my friendship with him. I shall refrain from socializing with him in future." This was the second time in Ruth's life when she had to sacrifice something of herself in order to save another man's career, only this time, she was not sure exactly what it was that she was giving up.

"Good, I'm happy to hear that." Sherman Tang seemed genuinely relieved by Ruth's response. He thought of something else and said, "I would be grateful, however, if you did not disclose to anyone the fact that we've had this discussion today, least of all Horace."

"I won't say a word," Ruth agreed. She did not think that she had any choice but to agree.

"Now, about that business matter I mentioned earlier." Sherman took out a sheet of paper and showed it to Ruth.

"It would appear that there is a traitor amongst our ranks. This is a message containing intelligence about China which one of my agents is trying to pass to the West, possibly the US. When I saw this agent's wife with a whole range of designer handbags, I knew that he was living beyond his means. He had to have found a way to supplement the income which we pay him. We'd like to know what kind of information is being sold to the West. I'd rather that this document was decoded by someone outside of our team, so that word about my discovery will not get back to the traitor in question. I wonder, would you mind taking a look at it? I'd understand if you feel that you are not in a position to give me this assistance."

Sherman Tang had timed his request perfectly. It had been a long time since Ruth was asked to decipher any encoded message. By this point, Ruth was so fed up with affairs of the heart that she was grateful for the chance to do something which required her skills as an analyst. She wanted to show this meddlesome, racist old man that she was not some floozie who had to be warned off men, that she had a first class brain which could be put to good use. She felt that as long as the intelligence related to Chinese matters, she would not be betraying her own country if she helped to decode it.

She gave the document a quick once over and immediately saw a smattering of Farsi in the text though it was all jumbled up and mixed with other languages and codes. It had been a while since she last looked at anything written in Farsi and this got her interested immediately. "Yes, I'll have a look at it. I'll need a day or so, if that's alright."

"Of course. When you are done, can you please put the original document in this plastic holder and the decoded message in this envelope," said Sherman as he demonstrated to Ruth how she should pack the original and the decoded documents separately. "This way, I will know whether the documents have been tampered with by the time they get back to me. I will arrange for someone to collect these from you the day after tomorrow. As for your remuneration …"

"No, thank you, that won't be necessary. You have been kind enough to allow me to stay here for the past few years, I don't really need …"

"Well, if you insist."

" … although I don't think that I would be comfortable with doing this kind of work for you in future. I hope you'll understand …"

"Yes, of course, I understand. Thank you so much for your help, Ms. Evershed, on both matters." Sherman treated Ruth to one of his enigmatic smiles.

After Sherman left, Ruth went to work on the document immediately. Even though Ruth's experience and skills were in the field of intelligence analysis, she did have a healthy side interest in cryptanalysis, the practice of breaking codes. It did not take her more than a couple of hours before she was able to decode the document since the code structure was not complicated to start with. She knew immediately that the information related to the sale of arms by the Chinese to Iran and that both the British and the Americans would be overjoyed to get their hands on this sort of information. She was briefly elated at the fact that she was not rusty in her skills, until she remembered that Sherman had said that this information was compiled by a rogue agent which meant that her work would probably make it easier for Sherman and his crew to send this poor agent to an early demise. That made her feel a little uneasy.

She debated with herself whether she should hand in this work. She was tempted, for all of two seconds, to pass this information to the West but then reminded herself that she did not have any way of passing on this intelligence since she no longer had contacts in that world, and if Sherman ever found out and traced it back to her, she would not be allowed to live. Ruth was not a coward, but she had been let down by the world of espionage before and this time, she figured that the world could save itself.

Ruth remembered that Sherman did give her a chance to back out of decoding the document but she had agreed too readily to take on the job and now, she really did not relish the thought of having to see this disagreeable man again if she had to explain why she had changed her mind. She did not dwell on these matters for long, since she had other things on her mind which came out of that meeting with Sherman.

Ruth now saw Horace in a whole new light and she kicked herself for not having made the connection before. Here was a good looking, highly educated and intelligent man who had been most attentive to her every time they were together. Yet she had been so preoccupied by matters related to her previous life that she failed to notice any of this. _Why didn't I see all the clues and get all the hints before? All this time, I was wallowing in self-pity when I could have enjoyed the affections of this lovely man. Is it too late to start something with Horace, just to spite Sherman? Yes, probably. In any case, I don't have a death wish nor could I ever have an affair with someone I don't love with the sole intention of breaking his heart. Poor Horace. Poor me. I wonder how many other opportunities at love I have let slip by the wayside, all because of Harry. I must get rid of his photos on my hard drive. At the very least, I should change the desktop image and the photos used in the screensaver programme. I'll do that tomorrow. If Harry has moved on, so should I._

Given what Sherman had told her about Horace, it was clear that she had outstayed her welcome in this part of the world, through no fault of her own. She would have to relocate elsewhere again. She sighed and felt weary in her bones. She also felt that life had dealt her a terrible hand. _I can't have the man that I love, and now I'm told that I can't even have the man I don't want._ _What is wrong with the world?_ As for her future, she felt completely lost. When she left London, she had her trip mapped out for her by her colleagues. When she had to leave Paris, she had help from Horace. This time, she would be on her own. She had no idea where she would go or what arrangements she should be making. It took so much effort on her part the last time around to build up a new life that she did not think that she had the energy to do this all over again.

Ruth then recalled an incident in the general office of her Department a couple of months ago which involved the plotting of a Chinese star chart as a means of telling someone's fortune. She went into the general office one afternoon in order to photocopy some course materials for her students and found all the secretaries, except for Becky, in hysterics. Apparently Becky had recently had her Chinese star chart plotted and made the mistake of sharing this information with one colleague who promptly told the whole office.

Amongst the many symbols which could populate a Chinese star chart, the one which most young people was interested in was the peach blossom symbol. When this appeared in someone's star chart, it usually meant that the person in question would have a lot of influences of a romantic nature. If the person was unmarried, he or she could expect a lot of attention from interested suitors; if the person was already married, it would indicate a strong possibility of love triangles and extra-marital affairs. The appearance of these and other symbols in one's star chart did not mean that one was doomed to a particular fate, they only served as indications of certain possibilities, and they should be interpreted along the lines of "to be forewarned is to be forearmed"; for example, if you knew that you were prone to extra-marital affairs, you could take steps to avoid becoming embroiled in this kind of situation.

Becky was told that in her chart, there were a lot of peach blossom influences. Poor Becky was about as mouse-like as they came and usually did not speak above a whisper. She was also quite short and plain looking. This was why her colleagues thought that the possibility of Becky being surrounded by a large number of potential suitors extremely funny. This reduced Becky close to tears and Ruth knew exactly how she felt. Although Ruth laughed along with the rest of them, she broke up the gathering by asking Becky to go over to the Main Library to fetch a book for her. She knew that the Main Library did not have the book she wanted. She was only trying to give Becky an excuse to get away from the pack of hyenas.

Ruth thought that the star chart with peach blossom symbols was a lot of rubbish at the time, but thinking about that incident now, she did not need a fortune teller to tell her that she had absolutely no peach blossom influence in her star chart. _I wonder if it would be possible for Becky to transfer a few of her peach blossoms to my chart? I could sure use some of that right now._ Her memory of that ridiculous incident helped Ruth snap out of her bad mood, but she remained depressed for a long time after that meeting with Sherman Tang. Ruth had never felt so completely unloved and unwanted.

* * *

Note 1 : The "Long March" was an important event in the rise of the Communist Party in China. Most if not all of those who took part in this march have now passed on. Any Chinese person who can claim a connection with any of the men and women who took part in this event will find it easier to have his political aspirations fulfilled in China.

Note 2 : Sonia Gandhi is an Italian woman who married Rajiv Ghandi, the eldest son of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Following her husband's assassination, Sonia Gandhi eventually found herself the leader of the Congress Party, even though she has indicated many times that she would rather not be involved in politics. Her name is mentioned in this Chapter only as an example of a person who is not a native of a country but has somehow ended up being a leading figure in the political arena of that country.

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Thanks everyone for your reviews so far. Apologies for having made one or two of you cry over the last chapter.

As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	16. Chapter 16

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 16

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

When Ruth shut down the possibility of the two of them developing a relationship after their first date, Harry did not put up too much of a fight because he thought that given time, he could probably wear down Ruth's reticence and bring her round. After all, they had been dancing round each other for a couple of years by that time, and there seemed no urgent reason why the pace should be quickened. When Mik Maudsley 'bumped' into Ruth at the Tube that fateful morning, Harry ran out of time and he lived to regret it. After Harry arrived in Ruth's office earlier in the day and later at her apartment, he was prepared to give Ruth some space and let her come to terms with being able to reclaim her old identity, and to reclaim him, at her own pace. But given the discussion which just took place in the kitchen, Harry decided that he was on the verge of running out of time again. He was not about to make the same mistake twice, which meant that he needed to make Ruth aware of his feelings right here, right now.

Harry saw that Ruth was not going to argue with him, so he took the two mugs of Chinese tea and made Ruth follow him to the living room. Ruth wanted to park herself on one of the single chairs which meant that Harry would have to sit on the three seater all by himself. This was unsatisfactory to Harry since he was sick and tired of having this gulf between the two of them, so he made her sit on the three seater with him. For what he was about to say to Ruth, Harry needed to be as close as possible to her and be able to hold both of her hands. Ruth resisted, initially, but Harry was quite insistent and after a little struggle, he was able to hold both of her hands in his. By way of protest, Ruth turned her head to one side to avoid having to look at Harry.

"Regardless of how you might feel about me right now, Ruth, and how things turn out for us from now on, you should know that as far as I am concerned, you have been, and will always be, someone who has a special place in my heart, and its not just because you used to work for me." Harry spoke softly but sincerely. There was no immediate response from Ruth, so he went on. "You are obviously distressed by that fact that I have made a new friend, a female friend. I don't like to see you unhappy. So please listen to what I have to say."

Ruth began to shiver a little. She was not at all sure that she was going to like what she was about to hear.

"I met Sandra a little over a year ago. I would have preferred that you'd never have to know about her. But as long as you already know, then I will be totally honest with you about her."

_One year?_ _A whole year? You might as well tell me that you've known her for a whole lifetime!_ _So her name is Sandra. That's a lovely name, I suppose._ A couple of tears started to roll down Ruth's cheeks. Harry saw this and he felt like someone had just stomped on his heart. He did not want her to be sad.

"I did not set out to look for a friend, it's just one of those things that happened. You of all people should know that I do not enter into personal relationships that easily. I know that one year may sound like a long time, but during that time, we haven't been seeing that much of each other."

"Please Harry, I don't really want to …" Ruth was not interested in more details of Harry's courtship of this woman.

Harry gripped her hands tighter to emphasise that she had to hear the rest of his speech. "Yes, you do, you have to know this. Before I left London for this trip, I have not seen or spoken to Sandra for over a month." Sandra had not been in any of Harry's thoughts long before that day he went to see DS Boyd. "Sandra provided me with companionship at a time when I needed it, that's all. I believe that she expects more from me. I have been trying to decide whether I'm in a position to meet her expectations. You see, I have been mourning you for so long that I was not sure …"

Ruth shook her hands free from Harry's grip in order to wipe away the tears from her eyes. She now paid a little more attention to what Harry was saying.

"I was beside myself with worry when you disappeared off the face of the earth shortly after you left. You never made contact with the people in France that Zaf told you to. You hardly touched the money Malcolm had arranged for you. I put out enquiries about your whereabouts all over Europe, the Middle East and both North and South America. I even tried Australia and New Zealand. Never in a million years would I have guessed that you were hiding out here. Isn't that always the case with something you've lost? That its always in the last place you thought to look?" That was Harry's feeble attempt at humour and it had no effect whatsoever on Ruth. "When I couldn't find you, I thought that someone had got to you at last, that they made sure that you were really dead, but as long as I didn't see your body, I refused to believe that you were dead. You are so strong, clever and resourceful that I was sure you must have managed to find a new hiding spot, and I kept hoping that I'd be able to find you one day. That, was what held me back where Sandra was concerned."

Ruth took a sip of her tea and let the hot liquid calm her down a little.

"I couldn't have sent you a 'change of address' card to tell you that I was relocating to this part of the world. That would have defeated the whole purpose of my going away, and would have complicated things for you." Ruth still refused to look Harry in the eye.

"I know, I'm not upset with you for not having been in contact, I knew you couldn't have." Harry thought that it was a good sign that Ruth was still talking to him. "I should have tried harder to look for you. I hated the thought of you all alone out there with no protection. I was very pleased to find out from Sherman that his crew has been watching your back all this time. When the opportunity to see you again came up, I leapt at the chance and here I am. I would have come sooner but the bloody Home Secretary took a week before she approved my trip. As soon as I got off the plane, I came to see you straightaway. Doesn't that tell you something about how I feel?"

Harry was hoping for a response but none was forthcoming.

"I came here to find answers to a whole lot of questions. When we discovered that document, I didn't know whether you were working for the Chinese or perhaps you might be in trouble with them in which case, whether you needed help. In any case, I thought that it was about time that I sorted out the Cotterdam mess and resurrected you. On a personal level, I needed answers to two questions. The first is how I still feel about you. The second question is a little more tricky : whether you still had feelings for me, or whether you have moved on. If it turned out that you have found someone else, I was prepared to walk away and leave you alone. You deserve all the happiness in the world after what you must have gone through these past few years."

Ruth remained silent. She wondered whether this little discussion had gone far enough. She was not at all sure she wanted to hear the rest of Harry' speech. _Why does life have to be so bloody complicated?_ By now, Harry had regained custody of both of her hands.

"I was very pleased to find out that you haven't been working for the Chinese and that you are not in trouble in any way. As for the personal issues, I really don't need an answer to my first question. I know how I feel about you, I just wanted to be sure."

For some reason, this provoked more tears from Ruth. Harry was a little baffled. _Could it be that the feeling is not mutual? Am I not saying the right things?_

"Obviously, your right to reclaim your old identity is not tied to our personal relationship. You can become 'Ruth Evershed' again but choose to stay as far away from me as possible. I'd understand." _No, I wouldn't, I'm only saying that, please don't take me seriously._ Although Harry had told himself many times over the years that if ever he met up with Ruth again and she indicated that she did not want to pick up where they left off, he would walk away, the reality was that he could not do that, not when it was so painfully obvious that not only was there no one else in Ruth's life at this time, but she still had emotional ties to him. Ruth's reaction to his new girlfriend told him everything he needed to know about his place in her heart.

"Ruth, in our job, as you know, we deal with a lot of hunches and uncertainties and oftentimes when we don't get it right, we end up with someone letting off a bomb somewhere or a lot of people getting hurt or losing their lives." He touched her face gently and tried to get her to look him in the eye. "With you, I don't have to rely on hunches. I know with every fibre of my being that I want to be with you."

Ruth took a deep breath and sighed. "You said just now that if I had someone else, you would walk away and leave me alone. Isn't that what I am doing now, to you? You have found someone and I am prepared to walk away. I don't want to complicate your life, Harry." This time, Ruth looked him in the eye.

Harry shook his head. "But this is not the same! For your assessment of this situation to be valid, it has to be predicated on the fact that I've ceased to have any feelings for you, and you know that that is simply not true, in which case, if you still care for me, then why would you want to walk away?" Harry paused to see if Ruth was going to object to his analysis. Ruth did not respond immediately. "Unless, there is someone else in your life. Is there?"

She wanted to lie and say to Harry, '_yes there is someone in my life, now piss off'_. She started to say something but decided that she could not form the words in her mouth. She looked away again.

"If you have to be pedantic about it, then yes, there is someone in my life right now," Harry continued, "but here's the difference : as long as you are available, I don't want to be with that other person, I choose to be with you. Now if you still have any feelings for me at all, choose me," pleaded Harry. _I'm not even asking you to fight with Sandra over me. I'm yours for the taking._

Ruth was trying to form a coherent thought but she felt conflicted. She wanted to say something along the lines of, _ah yes, the choices we make, I chose to keep a lonely vigil all these years whilst you chose to be with someone else_, but Ruth knew that things which were said in the heat of an argument could never be taken back, and she did not want to turn this into an acrimonious argument. This was not a discussion about assigning blame or fault for what had happened, or not happened between the two of them.

"Ruth, don't you feel the same way about me as before? Am I embarrassing you with what I've said so far?" _Say something, anything._

Ruth shook her head a couple of times. "Its not that, Harry …"

"Then what is it? Tell me and we'll try and fix it, together." Harry looked earnestly at Ruth. "We've overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to get to this point. I cannot believe that you are prepared to walk away now that it is possible to be together."

She kept looking at her hands and Harry's hands.

"Look, I won't insult your intelligence, or Sandra's, and say to you that Sandra means nothing to me. But you don't have anything to worry about where she is concerned. Come home with me, to London, and I will break it off with her, definitely and properly." The implication was loud and clear, _reject me and I will go running back to Sandra, is that what you want?_ "Please, Ruth, I won't be satisfied until you tell me that you don't ever want to see me again, and if that's the case, I _will_ walk away." That was the second time Harry had threatened to walk away. Harry was trying to call Ruth's bluff. He had no idea what he would do if Ruth really did tell him to go away.

Ruth did not have a ready answer. Harry knew that Ruth's silence meant that she was not sure, and as long as she was not sure, he still had a chance. He wished that the winds would stop howling for a moment. The setting felt like some bad soap opera … _it was a dark and stormy night _… and the situation would have been laughable except for the fact that Harry was trying to close one of the most important ops in his life.

After waiting for a couple of minutes and not getting any reaction from Ruth, he tried something else. He wanted to take a sip of his tea and so he started to loosen his grip on Ruth's hands; he also intended that gesture as a hint that he was ready to give up on her. It was only a small gesture but Harry got his response : when his hands moved, Ruth's hands also moved in a bid to hold on to his hands. She was not ready to let go of Harry, at least not yet.

After hesitating a little, Ruth started, "I don't want …" The tears had started again.

If ever Harry thought that he was going to have a heart attack it would be now. His heart was beating too fast for it to be healthy. That was not an opening to a statement that he wanted to hear.

"…to be with you …" The sobs were getting a little more out of control.

Harry could not believe what he was hearing. _No, no, no, please god, no …_

"… if it means … that someone else is going to be hurt."

Harry blinked and wondered if he had heard her right. When he was sure of what she just said, he was relieved. He did not know whether to laugh or cry. _My silly little mule! _ That response from Ruth told Harry that he was still in the game. After waiting for Ruth's sobs to subside, he gave it a final push.

"Do you think that where I'm concerned, one woman's companionship is interchangeable with another woman's? It doesn't work that way." Harry lifted Ruth's chin to make her look at him. "And you think that if you turned your back on me now and walked away, _I_ won't be hurt? Would you rather hurt Sandra or me? My love, now is not the time to exercise self control or self restraint. All's fair in love and war. Sandra is a strong woman, I'm sure she'll be able to find someone else." Harry thought about what he just said and decided that perhaps it required some clarification. "I don't mean that you're not strong or that you won't be able to … … oh, bugger, you know what I mean." _Oh god, this is much harder than I thought._ Harry then noticed that before Ruth looked away again, there was a twitch in her mouth as if she was about to break into a little smile. _I see, you like to see me squirm, do you?_

Ruth had never been a weepy kind of woman, and she did not want Harry to see her as an emotional wreck. So she struggled to free her hands in order to reach for some tissues to clean her face and nose. She willed her tears to stay just below the tear ducts. She thought that it was rather sweet of Harry to be all tongue tied, but still, she was not sure. "But Harry, she has a history with you, whereas you and I, we haven't even …" Ruth tried to sound like a sensible human being.

"Having a history doesn't mean just holding hands and having candlelit dinners, not as far as I'm concerned. You and I, we do have a history, we know each other well enough, at least I'd like to think so."

"If you gave her up and took a chance on me, we may not work out. Wouldn't you have lost a wonderful opportunity which you might otherwise have with this person?" _If we do get together and six months down the line, you turn around and say to me, 'look love, this isn't working out", I wouldn't be able to cope with that situation. I've had enough of an emotional rollercoaster ride these past few years, especially these last few months, I'm really not up to more thrills and spills on emotional matters._

"If we were meant to be together but you chose to walk away and we never find out what could have been, wouldn't that be the loss of a wonderful opportunity for both of us? If you recall, we did walk away from each other once before, but it didn't seem to have gotten us very far. Given all that we've been through, don't you think that you owe it to yourself to give us a chance, to find out whether we can make a go at having a long and meaningful relationship? Ruth, have some faith in me, in us." _Come on Ruth, be brave, be aggressive._

When Harry showed up at her office, Ruth felt conflicted. She was happy to see him, certainly, but not at a time when his situation had changed. She was not sure what Harry wanted from her by coming to see her, if indeed he wanted anything from her at all. Ever since that meeting with Sherman Tang, she had been trying to wean herself off her addiction to Harry and she thought that she had done quite a good job of hoisting herself onto the wagon. She had managed not to have a single thought of Harry during the day and during most nights. She had started to dismantle the little cocoon in her study, for example, she reduced the number of times she would surf to UK websites and had even started to watch a lot more American television shows as part of this process. She had also started to make discreet enquiries in Australia and New Zealand about relocating there. Regardless of whether or not she had a job lined up, she was going to hand in her notice at the University at the end of the current term. Ruth had not yet decided whether to tell Horace that she was leaving.

Her sole point of weakness was those photos on her computer. At the beginning of the Chinese New Year holidays which took place towards the end of January, she replaced the desktop image and the folder which the computer should access when the screensaver programme started, but she did not delete Harry's photos from her hard drive. The University had a break of about 10 days for Chinese New Year and during this time, Ruth almost went stir crazy with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Most of the expatriate staff took advantage of this break and left town for places like the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Ruth was not interested in sun and surf and so did not join her colleagues. Unlike her Chinese colleagues, she did not need to visit any family or friends in order to spread new year cheer. She was not married, so she was not obliged to hand out red packets of good luck money to little kids. Most employers would give their employees red packets at this time, something which was equivalent to the giving of a small Christmas bonus in the West to people like your doorman or security guard. Even though technically, she was not Dalane's employer (the University was), Ruth gave Dalane a red packet which contained a few hundred dollars as a token of her appreciation for Dalane's work in taking care of her and her apartment. After four days of complete and utter boredom, she gave in and reinstated her old desktop image and screensaver images. Looking at those photos gave her something to occupy her mind with and seemed to make the day go a little faster. Ruth figured that one small aberration should be allowed.

Apart from the small matter of the photos, Ruth thought that the detox process was going well until that moment when Harry walked through the door and at the very sight of him, she felt a mixture of longing and grief and promptly fell off the wagon. Sherman had only indicated that he would help Horace see the error of his ways, he never mentioned anything about arranging for Harry to come and see her.

_Here is someone I thought I can no longer have since he is already with someone else. I am prepared to live with that, even though I don't like it, but he just spent half the night telling me how much he needed and wanted me. Every time he said that, I just feel that it can't all be true or possible, that somehow fate must be toying with me again. Any moment now, someone will give me the punch line or tell me what is the price that I'll have to pay for being able to have him. After all the heartaches, can it be that easy, that all I have to do is to reach out and ….? For every argument I can think of for not being together, he seems to have an answer to refute that argument. Maybe there is a peach blossom symbol in my star chart after all and that symbol has Harry's name on it. _

Harry noticed that Ruth seemed to be taking her time to think things over. _That has to be a good sign, no? _He brushed a lock of hair away from Ruth's face and tried to wipe away some of her tears which have now reappeared.

"I lost you once, I don't want to lose you again. Ruth, I need you." Harry leaned forward and touched Ruth's forehead with his own. "You're the only one that I want. Tell me you'll come home, to London, with me, please?"

_What am I going to do with you, Harry Pearce?_

After a long while, Harry noticed that Ruth's shoulders had sagged and she gave an almost imperceptible little nod followed by a quiet, "yes".

Harry let out the breath which he did not realize he had been holding. He wrapped his arms around Ruth and held her close. _Finally, we're getting somewhere_. _ Its ok, its alright, I've got you now. _Harry could feel a small wet patch forming on his shirt from Ruth's tears._ Tears of joy, of relief, a little of both, I don't care. Cry all you want. Let it all out. Everything's going to be alright._

"I have missed you so much," he told her.

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As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	17. Chapter 17

Same Disclaimer as before

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Chapter 17

April 2009, Beijing

The best lies in the world were those which contained 90 percent or more of the truth and 10 percent or less of untruth. Most of what Sherman had told Ruth during their meeting in her apartment was true, though Sherman did leave out some important details and told a few half truths.

The document which Sherman asked Ruth to decode was made up by Sherman, not the rogue Chinese agent. When Sherman discovered that there was a traitor on his team, he saw an opportunity to turn this to his own advantage. He thought that he could kill two birds with one stone when he put in place a scheme to ferret out the traitor and implicate Ruth in such a way that might end up sending her home. Sherman initially identified a number of suspects and he arranged for each one to be fed a slightly different set of information. By the time he was able to intercept the message before it reached the hands of the teenage courier, he was able to unmask the traitor in question.

Given that the intelligence in the message was bogus, Sherman saw no harm in allowing it to go through to the British or the Americans. If the ship had made it into port in England, he would have arranged for the British immigration authorities to receive a tip-off so that the illegal immigrants would be rounded up. Once they were in custody, Sherman's agents would ensure that the police would receive more hints as to the existence of the document. The storm and the sinking of the containers were elements which Sherman could not have factored in, but in the end, the gods must have been on his side since the relevant container ultimately resurfaced. As it turned out, the forensics experts in England were quite dependable, Sherman thought, as they had no trouble locating the document fairly quickly after they started to examine the body of the teenage boy.

The elaborate ruse of making sure that Ruth handled the document before it was returned to the teenage courier was staged as much for Harry's benefit as it was for Horace's. Sherman knew that spies were naturally suspicious people since they never took anything at face value. It was an occupational hazard. Sherman assumed that if he had simply walked up to Harry and asked him whether he would be interested in taking back one of his former officers who was supposedly dead, Harry might deny all knowledge of the officer in question as he might have become immediately suspicious of Sherman's honesty and intentions. Like a parent trying to make a child eat his greens, Sherman felt that he had to make Harry himself think that it was a good idea to reclaim his supposedly dead officer. That way, Sherman could be sure that Harry would be willing to go the distance to convince the British Government to resurrect Ruth. If Sherman was too upfront with Harry, he ran the risk of Harry being accused by his superiors of colluding with the Chinese and that could scuttle all attempts to have Ruth shipped back to Britain. When Harry took a week before ordering his plane ticket to Hong Kong, Sherman knew that he must have been working things out with his superiors. As soon as Harry booked his ticket, Sherman knew that his plan worked and there was nothing left for him to do.

When Horace first asked Sherman to give protection to Ruth, Sherman was not crazy about the idea though he did like the thought of outsmarting the Algerian assassins. In the end, Sherman indulged in Horace's request in much the same way a parent might have done if his child brought home a bird with a broken wing, though with the benefit of hindsight and given the prevalence of avian flu, he should have just broken the bird's neck and put it out of its misery and not allowed Horace to keep it. More recently, Horace had started to make noises about involving Ruth in their work as a consultant. Horace was looking for ways of bringing Ruth closer to his way of life. There was no way that Sherman would have permitted that to happen.

Sherman had nothing personal against Ruth. Since they placed her in Hong Kong, she had been well behaved and kept a low profile like she was told. Sherman would have liked to have saved Ruth for a more important trade in China's dealings with the British, but as soon as Sherman became aware that Horace was about to stray into dangerous territory, he decided that he had to take Ruth out of Horace's line of sight without further delay. Sherman wanted to make sure that Horace could not miss what he never had.

Sherman knew that he had to find a way to explain to Horace how his favourite toy became repossessed by its former owner. If Horace questioned Sherman as to why he allowed Ruth to encode/decode the document, Sherman could turn to him very innocently and say, _but wasn't it you who suggested that we could use her as a consultant on occasion?_ It would become that much harder for Horace to maintain contact with Ruth once she went elsewhere, especially if she were to work for MI5 again.

As a matter of courtesy, Sherman offered Ruth back to her old employers first. If they wanted her back, Ruth would not need protection from the Chinese anymore and would most likely return to Britain or go elsewhere. If Ruth had declined to leave Horace alone or refused to work on the document, or if for some reason MI5 decided to leave Ruth out in the cold, Sherman would have to activate Plan B which was going to be a little more complicated and a lot more messy. As Harry had surmised correctly at breakfast, accidents could and did happen. That rogue agent on the Chinese side committed suicide in jail whilst awaiting trial. No one would ever know whether he placed the noose around his neck himself, or whether he had help.

After Margaret Thatcher slipped and fell on the steps to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the British and the Chinese spent the next 10 years or so hammering out the finer details of the handover of Hong Kong by the British back to the Chinese. Sherman participated in those talks as a member of the Chinese team. He saw, first hand, the arrogance of the British delegates who were making all sorts of demands on how China should treat Hong Kong after the change in sovereignty. _You changed your Nationality Act so that millions of Hong Kong citizens, born under British rule, would be denied the right to claim British Nationality and right of abode. Then you develop some kind of conscience and start to dictate what Beijing can or cannot do to Hong Kong after the change in sovereignty. How dare you? _Hong Kong was like a child who had been fostered out to the British for over 100 years and was now being returned to its biological parent. _Did the Brits really think that Beijing would strangle its own child? Come on!_ Since Sherman knew the British mentality well, he knew with a degree of certainty that once the British knew that the Chinese had information about one of their dirty little secrets, i.e. Ruth, they would take steps to neutralize that situation because they would not let the Chinese use that information as a bargaining chip in any situation. It would be so much easier for the British Government to accede to Harry's request of resurrecting Ruth than face the possibility of an eventual trade with the Chinese.

Sherman was not really interested in blackmailing Harry Pearce. Whilst he disliked the British as a nation, he did have a lot of time for Harry. _He may be arrogant, but he is also clever and good at his job._ Harry was of little value to the Chinese for the purpose of obtaining intelligence, though he might be of some value for future liaison. Whether or not Harry would lose his job in trying to resurrect Ruth was of no interest to Sherman. Sherman was also not worried that Harry might become angry with him for setting this trap. _What is there to be angry about when I simply returned one of your officers to you? _Sherman knew that once Ruth had been debriefed, MI5 would find out that the intelligence contained in the encoded document with Ruth's fingerprints had no value, but they would be none the wiser as to why Ruth was set up in this way. _There are only two people in the world who know the truth about why the trap was mounted in the first place, myself and Ruth Evershed. I'm sure that Ms. Evershed will never tell. Why would she tell? And if she did tell, who would believe her, and what good would it do her?_

As regards any personal relationship between Harry and Ruth, again, Sherman could care less whether or not those two had anything going on although he suspected that there might be something when he learnt of the nature of the latest set of photos which Horace had given Ruth. Sherman was not interested in being any sort of matchmaker. As far as Sherman was concerned, a spook in love was a dangerous spook because it meant that the spook had a chink in his armour and that made him a vulnerable spook. He had to talk to Ruth in order to be sure where things stood between her and Horace. As long as he was sure that Ruth had no designs on Horace, Sherman felt no compunction in setting his trap and getting rid of Ruth.

Sherman hated the comments made by Prince Charles about the Chinese leaders who were present at the handover ceremony in July 1997. _Look in the mirror, your royal highness, and you will see a prime example of an old fossil yourself!_ Sherman made sure that Horace was on the shortlist of those who were earmarked for advancement in the Central Government. In this regard, Sherman knew that he had the support of his friends in the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. They were determined that the next generation of Chinese leaders would look every bit as charismatic as some of the Western leaders, and every one of them would have a Chinese wife on his arm who would give Carla Bruni Sarkozy a run for the money so far as poise and style were concerned.

_Horace needs to settle down soon with some nice Chinese girl, one with the right background and connections to ensure his political ascendency, though the likely candidate will not be allowed to have any career ambitions. This woman's sole purpose in life must be to reproduce heirs and look after Horace in every respect. The Chinese population currently stands at 1.5 billion, of which there has to be at least a couple of hundred million women of marriageable age. I cannot believe that out of 100 to 200 million Chinese women, Horace is unable to find a Chinese girl of his dreams!_

Sherman had thousands of agents under his command but he did not treat all of them in the same way. Horace was the special one. There was nothing Sherman would not do in order to protect him and his political future. Sherman had gone to cadre school with Horace's parents where the three of them became best mates. At cadre school, upright members of the Chinese Communist Party were trained in a variety of disciplines and underwent further indoctrination for eventual positions in various levels of Government. Although both Sherman and Horace's father pursued Horace's mother, Ning Jing, when a choice had to be made, she chose Horace's father instead of Sherman who accepted his defeat graciously.

China went through some tumultuous times in the Sixties and Horace's parents separated briefly during the Cultural Revolution when the two of them fell out over ideological differences. He was all for smashing all vestige of China's past, including all the valuable artifacts and antiques in the Forbidden City, whilst she advocated a more moderate approach and wanted to save these invaluable items for future generations. Their separation sent Ning Jing straight into the open arms of Sherman. When the local party secretary found out about the separation (but not the affair with Sherman), he persuaded Ning Jing to return to her husband since divorce was generally frowned upon in those days and especially within party ranks. Shortly after going back to her husband, Horace's mother announced that she was in the family way.

Sherman thought that he could cope with losing this woman back to her husband, but when he heard about the pregnancy, the full extent of his loss and the hurt he felt in relation to the affair manifested itself and for days, he found himself wandering the streets of Beijing aimlessly. He did not eat, sleep or wash. It was as if someone had taken the sim card out of his brain and he was searching desperately for a signal, for some guidance as to how he could carry on living.

When he eventually found himself sitting on the steps of the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square early one morning, he saw the daily flag raising ceremony and heard the national anthem being played. That was when he realized what he had to do, that he would dedicate his life to the service of his country. He promised himself that he would never fall in love again. _When you fall in love with someone, you lay yourself open to hurt and disappointment because you can never predict how the other party is going to behave and this meant that you are vulnerable to the whims of others._ Sherman did not like any situation over which he could not control.

Sherman never married. It was not so much that he pined for his lost love, it was more that he became distrustful of women in general. Given his proficiency in English and Russian, he applied to the foreign section of the Security Bureau and worked mostly outside China; that way, he could avoid contact with Horace's parents. When Horace was 15 and ready to be shipped overseas for further education, its was his mother who sought out Sherman. Sherman would never forget that meeting.

It was 1984 and as usual, Sherman returned to Beijing in March in order to attend the annual session of the National People's Congress. He was supposed to be on parade and offer assistance when his boss, the Chief of the Security Bureau presented his annual report on the status of the nation's security. Horace's mother, Ning Jing, sent word to Sherman that she would like a meeting. Sherman was intrigued. _Its been 15 years of no contact. What does she want now?_

"Xiang Wen, how are you?" Ning Jing greeted him as usual by his Chinese name. She was probably the only Chinese person on earth who could greet Sherman in this way and get away with it.

Given Sherman's age and seniority in the Security Bureau, Chinese custom dictated that everyone should greet him by his surname followed by his job title; no one except family and close friends were permitted to address him by his given name. Sherman's Chinese name was Deng Xiang Wen. When he was stationed in the Hong Kong bureau in the Seventies, his Hong Kong colleagues had suggested that he should adopt an English name so that it would make it easier for Westerners to deal with him. They picked "Sherman" as they believed that it was phonetically the closest to his Chinese name; the Cantonese pronounced his name as "Tang Shang Men". Someone also joked that his new English name made him sound like the 'sherman tank'.

"I have a favour to ask of you. My only child, Horace, is now 15 and ready to go overseas for further education."

"How wonderful for you. Congratulations!" _Can you believe this woman? 15 years ago you break my heart by carrying another man's child immediately after we separated, and now you want to see me because you want to gloat over your son. I shouldn't have agreed to this meeting!_

"I have heard all kinds of horror stories about the children of high ranking cadre misbehaving once they are outside China. They succumb to all the worst influences which the corrupt, bourgeois West has to offer, and lose sight of the revolutionary cause. They get mixed up with drugs and alcohol, not to mention running around with all those loose women." Communism was the only way of life this woman had ever known.

"Well, you can't prevent the young from being stupid and making some mistakes along the way." _Funny you should mention 'loose women'. Weren't you one yourself, where I was concerned? Then again, I'm not being fair. As far as I know, I am the only other man you had been with, apart from your husband._

"I was wondering, since we need to appoint a guardian for Horace, would you take up this role? I know that you spend a lot of time at the United Nations in New York … Neither my husband nor I will be granted permission to travel abroad to help him settle down in boarding school, or to look in on him from time to time."

"I can't possibly take on such a serious responsibility. My work takes up all of my time. I have to travel constantly. I wouldn't know how to handle a teenager. I'm sure you know of other more qualified persons."

"I should tell you that my husband is very much against sending Horace outside of China for further education. He thinks that everything Horace has to learn is available right here in this country. I disagree, of course. He needs to learn from the West in order to defeat these people at their own game. My husband only agreed to let Horace go as long as the right guardian is appointed for him. He has indicated that he would accept you as the boy's guardian. Horace is a good boy and shouldn't give you any trouble. He just needs a firm guiding hand. Please, Xiang Wen, I wouldn't ask if I had an alternative."

"I'm sorry, but I must decline …" Sherman was starting to get really annoyed. _How dare you to ask this of me, after what we went through all those years ago?_ He had heard of instances where couples separated but still remained on friendly terms. That concept did not exist in Sherman's books. He then noticed that Ning Jing had started to tear up. _I'll never understand women, why would you weep over something like this? Look, woman, don't try your tears on me, it won't work_.

"You have to do this, please …. he's … your … son …"

Sherman was stunned. "You cannot be serious! This is ridiculous!"

She looked serious and shook her head very slowly. "Would I lie about something like this?"

"Why didn't you tell me before? How dare you keep this from me for so long?" If Sherman thought that he had gotten the art of looking cool down to perfection, he was sadly mistaken because at that moment, he was red in the face and veins were popping on the side of his head. He was ready to kill someone.

"I didn't have a choice. If you had not run away from this country so quickly and stayed away for so many years, I might have tried to tell you. But after a while, it didn't seem to matter anymore_. _You have every right to be angry with me, but please don't take your anger out on the boy. He is completely innocent and should not be made to suffer the consequences of a mistake made by an older generation."

_A mistake? Is that all I am to you?_ Sherman could remember all those nights during their short affair when they could not have enough of each other's body, and now, that experience was described to him as a mistake. _Why did I have to make that stupid remark earlier about people making mistakes in their youth?_ If only he had a gun within reach, he would have used it, on her.

"Does he know?"

"No, neither Horace nor my husband knows about this, and this is the way it has to be." She wanted to explain her earlier comment about the 'mistake' made by an older generation. She wanted to tell him that it was not really a mistake in the sense that she loved him less, but she felt that nothing she could say at that moment would be taken in the right way by Sherman.

_Your husband knows, he must know, otherwise he wouldn't have pre-approved my appointment as the boy's guardian_. Given the circumstances, Sherman did not think that he had a choice but to agree to act as Horace's guardian. He did not doubt that Ning Jing might have fabricated the connection between him and the boy. He knew her well enough to know that she would not have made this disclosure except for worry and concern over her only child who was about to go wandering around the Western world, a world which she knew nothing about.

When Sherman met the boy, he liked him immediately because Horace looked like the male version of his mother in her younger days. After the shock of the disclosure she made had worn off, Sherman had to admit to himself that he could not really hate this woman. When Sherman and Horace arrived in New York, Sherman immediately arranged for Horace's DNA to be tested and confirmed that the boy was indeed his own flesh and blood.

Horace just assumed that Sherman was like a Chinese godfather to him. Sherman enrolled him in one of the most exclusive boarding schools on the East Coast. _The boy must start to make the right sort of friends at school for future networking purposes. _Sherman helped him settle down in the US and took him out each and every weekend he was allowed to leave school grounds. He advised him on what courses to take, which universities to apply to, and generally, how to interact with his Western classmates. Horace greatly admired Sherman's skills as a spy and as soon as he was done collecting degrees from both sides of the Atlantic, he signed up for the Security Bureau so that he could follow in Sherman's footsteps.

Horace was the only person that Sherman was capable of loving. Horace was the chink in Sherman's armour.

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One more chapter to go and we're done.

As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.


	18. Chapter 18

**Same Disclaimer as before**

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Chapter 18

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

"I'm sorry, Ruth, but I can't do this anymore." And with that, Harry turned around and started to walk away from her. Ruth felt cold and she started to shiver uncontrollably. She wanted to cry but somehow could not find her voice and there were no tears. She just stood there, fists clenched and wished that there was something she could do to make Harry turn around again. She could not remember the last time she felt so helpless. She felt as though something was restraining her.

Then she woke up, with her heart still beating a little faster than normal. Before she even had a chance to orientate herself, she felt Harry's arms around her waist and she heard him asking from behind her, gently, "bad dream? Want to talk about it?"

_Harry?!_ Ruth vaguely remember discussing with Harry till 3 in the morning where they stood with each other when he suggested that they both needed some rest and the next thing she knew, Harry dragged her off to bed, her bed, and she fell asleep with Harry's arms around her. It was not a deep, relaxing kind of sleep but the kind which was brought on after one's tear ducts had received a bit of a workout. Nothing further had happened. Both of them were still fully clothed.

Ruth gave Harry's hands a little squeeze to indicate that she was alright. Except for that farewell on the docks before she left London, Ruth had never been _thisclose_ to Harry before and now that she had regained consciousness, she felt awkward and nervous.

Ruth reached over and used the remote on the bedside table to turn on the TV in the bedroom. She wanted to find out how much damage the typhoon had caused overnight to the outside world. The winds have stopped howling and though it was still raining, it was not raining as hard as before. She needed to know whether they had lowered the typhoon signal; if they had, that would mean having to go to her office, but if they had not yet lowered the number 8 signal, she could have more time off. Just then, she remembered that this was Saturday morning and she did not have to go to her office regardless of whether the typhoon was still around. She had brought back a stack of papers which she could mark at home. She made sure that the volume on the TV was turned down since she was not sure whether Harry was interested in the local news.

"Can you understand what they are saying," Harry asked sleepily. He could not understand a word of the news report on TV since it was all in Cantonese.

"Enough to know what's going on. We have a number of 24 hour local news channels but they are all in Cantonese. In a minute when they've finished with the typhoon news, I can switch it over to CNN or the BBC for you."

"No, that's fine. I don't want to know what's going on outside. I just want to stay here with you … in bed … forever." Harry held Ruth closer to him and started to nuzzle the back of her head and her neck.

"I've been making half-hearted attempts to learn Chinese and Japanese, but I'm afraid I haven't done very well. It was only to pass the time. Cantonese is so very different from Mandarin. I know enough Cantonese to speak to taxi drivers, but every time I try to say something in Cantonese to my students, they laugh at my accent, so I've stopped trying. And contrary to popular belief, Japanese is not similar to Chinese … oh …"

Ruth could now feel Harry's lips on her neck, so she abandoned the discussion on her language aspirations and turned around slowly to face Harry. Harry inhaled a lungful of Ruth's scent and decided that this was so much better than just plain oxygen.

"How much leave did you take for this trip?"

"Two weeks. Why do you ask?"

"Just thinking what am I going to do with you for the next two weeks. I assume that you have been assigned a security detail."

"Yes, her name is Amy and she's very pretty." Harry had obviously recovered from that early morning discussion and was now in a flippant mood.

"Oh good, then she can take you to Disneyland, Ocean Park and the other touristy places whilst I stay at uni and do some work," said Ruth in a very matter-of-fact manner.

"Well, I didn't come to sightsee," said Harry, rapidly trying to dig himself out of the hole he had just put himself in. "Everything I've always wanted to see is right here, in front of me. I'll go wherever you want me to. I'm easy. I can think of a couple of things we can do, together, which wouldn't even require us having to leave this apartment," said Harry hopefully.

"Do you really think that that's such a good idea?" Ruth gave Harry a seriously disapproving look. "You seem to forget that this is a town where Sherman Tang has eyes and ears everywhere. I know that my apartment has not been bugged but then again, I haven't done a sweep in the last month."

_Don't you just love her? Other women might spend their evenings doing their hair or nails, but this one here sweeps her apartment for bugs!_ _ How can there be anyone else for me? _The fact remained that the mere mention of Sherman Tang's name at a time like this had a better effect on Harry than a cold shower. _The last thing I want is to be caught in flagrante delicto by Sherman's watchers. _Harry was not in any hurry to consummate the physical side of their relationship. He had just managed to coax Ruth back into his arms, so he was not about to scare her off by jumping her bones right away. _I can take things nice and slow. Until you get on that plane to London with me, I'd be well advised to walk around on eggshells._

"Well, I guess you're right, in which case I better call the lovely Amy and tell her to come and fetch me. I really ought to check into my hotel …" Harry took his free arm off Ruth's waist and he was in the middle of trying to extricate his other arm from underneath her body when he noticed that Ruth was still clinging onto to him. _Hmmm, this is interesting …_

"No … you can stay … as long as you behave," Ruth muttered into his chest.

_Well …_ _in that case, yes ma'am, don't mind if I do ._ Harry immediately put his arm back around Ruth's waist but he asked, "I thought we were worried about Sherman and his watchers."

"Screw Sherman!"

"Oh no, please don't do that, my love, its me you're supposed to want to … " Harry's pathetic little joke was rewarded with a thump on the chest. "Ouch! When did you become so violent?" _Ok, Ok, I heard you the first time. Wait till that plane lands in London, then I'll show you how badly I can misbehave …_

"When I said behave, I meant it." Ruth noticed that Harry had just unleashed one of his pouts on her so she put her fingers across Harry's lips to push that pout back in place. _You should know by now that that pout doesn't work on me, well, not all the time anyway._

Harry knew from the outset that with Ruth, it was never going to be just a quick shag, a fling or an affair because she deserved much more respect than that. Harry had noticed a long time ago that Ruth had a distinct lack of self confidence when it came to dealing with personal relationships. He saw that again earlier this morning when Ruth was prepared to walk away from a love triangle without putting up a fight, even though she was told that there was no triangle to start with. He was not going to comment on this in case it was interpreted as judgmental. _Once Ruth is fully immersed in a stable and loving relationship, she'd be alright; and as for the person who is going to help build that relationship, I know just the man for the job!_

"What did you tell the others about the purpose of this trip? This seems an unlikely place for a senior MI5 officer to go for a holiday."

"Only the DG and the Home Secretary know the real purpose of my visit, or rather, the 'official' real purpose. I've told Connie, of course, and I think she's telling anyone who wants to know that I came for some yacht race."

"What, the South China Sea race? You're a bit early for that. This year's race won't take place until the weekend you're supposed to leave."

"Oh. I better tell Connie to update her information on this subject."

"Does it mean that you're expecting me to fly back with you at the end of two weeks?"

"I would hope so. Why, would that be a problem?"

"Its just that I don't know if I can wind things down here in such a short time. As far as the students are concerned, end of term will take place next week. For the teaching staff, there will be endless staff meetings and papers to be marked until the results are announced in early July."

"I can always extend my leave. I'm not leaving without you. I don't ever want to take my eyes off you again." It was Harry's turn to give Ruth a serious look.

"Let me have a word with the Head of my Department in a few days' time and see if we can work something out."

"Please do that. Maybe you can ask that new best friend of yours to lean on him."

"That's not funny!" Ruth gave Harry another disapproving look.

Harry smiled sheepishly, ran his fingers through Ruth's hair and kissed her forehead. That gesture was just to test the waters, to see if a simple act like that would count towards misbehaviour.

"Harry, do you feel that we've been used as pawns in somebody else's game?" Ruth was thinking of Sherman and Horace.

"I know what you mean," replied Harry, who was also thinking of Sherman at this point, "and it wouldn't be the first time. Sometimes we play with other people's lives, sometimes other people get to play around with our lives. It's the nature of our job, I suppose." _I still don't have enough information to understand why Sherman had set up such an elaborate scheme to give Ruth back to us. Then again, the Chinese did have this reputation for never being straightforward or upfront in their dealings. I suspect Ruth might know something, though she's not telling. I won't press her. She'll tell me soon enough, when she's good and ready …_

Ruth did not like Sherman Tang who was altogether too cold and calculating. At the same time, she could not bring herself to hate the man since his machinations were responsible for bringing Harry back into her life. As for Horace, she wondered whether she would ever see him again once she went back to London. She had not heard from him since Christmas, but then again, it was not unusual for him not to call for months at a time. If she returned to the Service, there was a good chance that she might run into him again on work related matters. She would have liked to have been able to say goodbye and thank him for having looked after her these past few years.

Harry saw that Ruth was lost in thought a million miles away. He wanted to bring her back to the here and now.

"I don't care how they play the game, as long as I get the girl in the end." Harry's hand had found its way under Ruth's pajama top and was now caressing her back. Any minute now, he was expecting to be told off again.

"Have you? Got the girl, I mean?" Ruth gave Harry a quizzical look.

"I think so, don't you?" Harry became worried and stopped caressing Ruth's back for a moment. He relaxed when he saw that the serious look in Ruth's eyes had a twinkle to it. He knew that she was only teasing and his hand went back to enjoying the silky smoothness of Ruth's back. _Good, I haven't been told to withdraw my hand yet._

Ruth thought about their situation some more. Something was still bothering her. "Are you sure you've cleared everything with Whitehall?"

Harry decided that certain non-essential information just became reclassified as essential information. He had to tell Ruth about his suspension and resignation.

"I've resigned, or at least I think I have. Before I came out here, I left a resignation letter with the DG which is undated. They are free to date it and make it effective at any time."

When she heard, she looked worried and struggled to get out of Harry's arms. Although Harry tried to hold on tight, Ruth still managed to pull herself to a sitting position.

"You should have told me! Had I known about this, I wouldn't have agreed to …" Ruth was quite upset about this.

"That's precisely why I didn't tell you earlier! I'm determined that you should have your life back, regardless of what happens to me, and there's nothing you can do about it. That's not negotiable." Harry started to become a little worried. "Don't you think that you have suffered enough for me and for your country?"

Ruth did not say anything but looked a little angry and concerned.

"Look, things have gotten particularly nasty these last couple of years. I am mired in all that treachery and deceit day in and day out. We don't know who our friends are, we don't know who our enemies are. I'm not sure I can take much more of this for much longer." Harry then began to tell her about events which had taken place in London since she left, about Yalta, dealings with Iran and the CIA, the Government sponsored assassination attempt on himself and his team in Section D, and a variety of other ops. He told her about the battles he had to wage with the Government and the other security services. He told her how he felt about losing Ros, Adam and Zaf.

This was the unexpurgated version of events which had taken place in the last three years, not some second hand report from a foreign spook watching from afar as an interested bystander. For the first time since Harry came into her office yesterday afternoon, Ruth took a real hard look at him and she saw a man worn down by constant battle. She heard the frustration in his voice and saw the weariness in his eyes. She had seen this in Tom Quinn before, when he was totally burnt out and quit the Service as a result. But she knew that Harry was a stronger man than Tom, and that he only needed love and support in order to recharge his energy. She reached out to caress Harry's face, a small gesture to tell him that everything would be alright.

Three years ago, Ruth was ready to give up her life and career so that Harry could have his. But it did not look as if she achieved anything by leaving. The Americans were still getting away with renditions, and the battles which Harry had been fighting kept getting bigger and nastier. Now, after all these years of running and relocating, Ruth was feeling tired. She had been given a second chance where Harry was concerned and it felt good to be in his arms. Ruth told herself that maybe it was time to rethink her priorities. _As long as I want to be with him, it shouldn't matter whether he continues to work for the Service or not. If Harry leaves the Service, there'd be little point in my rejoining them. If he stays with the Service, I could do worse than rejoin, stand alongside him and help him fight the good fight. And if the Chinese experience is anything to go by, Section D ought to be gearing up for the 2012 London Games right about now and they will need all hands on deck._

This was the first time in a long, long time that Harry was able to really unburden his soul and he felt a total sense of relief as he poured out his heart to Ruth. As a former soldier and an experienced spook, he had been trained all his life to hold everything in, but there were times when he felt really scared, helpless and alone in his job, and those were the times when he could really use a friend and confidante. He could never talk like this to any one else, except maybe Connie, but his affections for Connie was not in the same category as his feelings for Ruth. He looked into Ruth's eyes and found himself bathed in a sea of blue/grey comfort. It felt as if someone had applied a soothing balm to his tortured soul. He did not ever want to look anywhere else. _This woman understands me and supports me, and if I am to be judged by any one, I only want to be judged by her._

"Are you really sure you want to resign over me?" Ruth had stopped being angry. She had decided to forgive Harry for having withheld certain information from her.

"Its not a question of trading my job for your life. I don't really care anymore what the DG wants to do with my resignation letter, though he did say that he wants a word after I get back, so who knows what's going to happen. I've always known that this was a dangerous and difficult job, and if I can have you back by my side, I am prepared to continue doing it until its time for me to go. I need you there to remind me that there is still a positive side to human nature, that there can be affection and tenderness in this crazy world. Don't worry about me, my love, I can take care of myself. Lets just concentrate on rebuilding your life first. I am so sorry for everything you've had to go through. I would do anything to make it up to you." Harry kissed her tentatively, since he was not sure whether _that_ counted as misbehaviour under the house rules. It was something he had wanted to do ever since he laid eyes on Ruth in her office yesterday afternoon. That kiss helped to soften Ruth back into Harry's embrace.

"You know, Ruth, apart from the money that we arranged for you when you first left, the Government won't be able to give you any monetary compensation for the pain and suffering you have gone through."

"I know, I wasn't expecting any," Ruth said softly. "I didn't use the money Malcolm had set up for me in case anyone was using that trail to find me. I wasn't expecting you to use that trail." Ruth gave Harry an apologetic look. "The University started to pay me quite soon after I arrived here, so I was alright for money and it wasn't necessary to tap into those funds."

"Your little stash has been earning interest all this time, and with the movement of the exchange rate for Euros the last couple of years, you're sitting on quite a pile of money. They won't take that money away from you, they can't, I won't let them. On my part, apart from my love and affection, I can offer you something else, assuming that that sort of thing means anything to you."

"And what would that be?"

"A title."

"You mean …" Ruth did not know quite what Harry meant though she had a vague idea what it was.

"Yes, Ruth, that is exactly what I mean."

"But Harry, isn't it a little too premature to think so far ahead?" Ruth felt a little uneasy. Harry could feel her body stiffen again. He had just stepped on a couple of eggshells.

"I know it's a little early for a proposal, but given your propensity to misunderstand or misjudge my intentions over the years," Harry narrowly dodged a jab in the chest from Ruth, "I want to put this on the table now so that we're both 'on the same page', as the Americans love to say. We've lost so much time already in this relationship that I think it is absolutely necessary that we check this item on the 'to-do' list sooner rather than later."

Actually, Harry did not care what sort of label people might want to pin on him and Ruth as long as they were in a committed relationship. Harry had sworn off marriage ever since his first one ended, badly. Over the years, he would gladly preach to whoever was within earshot what an inhuman concept the institution of marriage was. It was very unnatural, he would argue, to subject a human being to a constant state of compromise. But Harry failed to see one fundamental flaw in his argument, which was the fact that the success of personal relationships really depended on the chemistry between the people involved. With Sandra, Harry was not ready to have _the_ chat, but with Ruth, he initiated it. Harry should know that if the right partner was involved, 'a compromise' would somehow be regarded as 'a wonderful idea' or 'a logical choice'.

"But …"

"Listen, there used to be a time when courtships were conducted quite differently. In those days, when a gentleman asked to step out with a lady, they both knew where they were headed. Don't look at me like that, I was referring to the altar and not the bedroom. You know how it goes, I'm sure you've read all the books by Jane Austen and the others. I'm just being old fashioned. Where you're concerned, my intentions are entirely honourable, I am in this for the long haul."

"I knew you were old, but I didn't think that you were that old fash… ," Ruth started to tease.

"I'm not expecting an answer right away. In fact, I'd like you to take your time and be sure. Whenever you're ready, let me know and I will stage the whole traditional routine."

"Harry …"

"And if at any time you feel that you are unlikely, ever, to want to take up my offer, again, please let me know. I will be heartbroken, of course, but I will not stand in your way. At least by then, we would have given this relationship a try." Harry tried his best to sound as convincing as possible.

"You're a silly man …" Ruth kissed him on his cheek to drive home her point. She noticed that she kept hearing this kind of talk from Harry, how he was ready to walk away and leave her alone. Ruth wondered if he could really walk away from her, any more than she could really walk away from him.

Harry then got busy placing chaste little kisses on Ruth's forehead, tip of her nose and her cheeks. _Just testing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour …_ He was rudely interrupted by scratching noises from the other side of the bedroom door followed by a few loud 'meows'. Harry had deliberately locked Nikoo out of the bedroom when he dragged Ruth off to bed. _Who knows whether that stupid cat has been recruited by Sherman?_

"Nikoo will have to come with me, is that alright?"

"I suppose so. We can't let you go home without taking the 'love of your life' with you, now can we? You better get his passport ready, or he'll have to spend six months in quarantine. He'll also have to learn to be nicer to me."

"Don't worry about it. Now that he can smell your scent in this bed, he will change his attitude towards you."

"How do you know that? Have you had other …" Harry then decided against finishing his question. He knew that he had no right to ask Ruth this sort of question. In any case, it did not matter. All Harry wanted, from this point onwards, was to have Ruth as his life partner.

"I just know my cat, that's all."

"Earlier, you said that you have no home to go back to. You can always stay with me when we get back, if that idea is not too repulsive."

"Well, I suppose I just might be able to live with that, until I find my own place." Ruth was already worried about what people in the Service might say once they found out that not only had she been resurrected and reinstated, she was also cohabiting with Harry. But she decided not to say anything because she knew that if she did, she would only be told off by Harry for caring too much about what other people said.

"Yes, of course," said the spider to the fly. "But the UK property market right now is a little crazy and you'd be well advised to wait till the market goes down a little more before investing in bricks and mortar. Maybe I can arrange for your little stash to be invested in something more liquid for the time being, like stocks and shares and …"

"I see, so you're after my money …," joked Ruth.

"You didn't think that I came half way across the world just for your body …" Harry said with a straight face.

Ruth knew that Harry was just teasing so she responded by simply giving him a big grin.

_Oh my god, I've forgotten about the dimples. That has got to be the most beautiful smile in the whole world. I must remember to say or do something on a daily basis from now on so that I get to see that smile, and those dimples, all the time._

"… though it goes without saying that I'm after your body as well." This time Harry anticipated the strike and was able to stop Ruth's hand before she thumped him again on the chest. "And just so you know, as long as you're staying with me, you won't be getting your own room."

"Hmmm, that's OK," said Ruth without missing a beat, "Nikoo and I have always shared a bed."

"I do _not_ share my bed with furry little animals."

Ruth giggled and Harry realized that he had been had, once again. He started to tickle her. Ruth laughed and snuggled closer to Harry. "By the way, I still have your cat from the last time you left me," Harry reminded her.

"That's right! How is Fidget?"

"He's alright, I think, we mostly leave each other alone. He's a little bossy where my dog is concerned. He might have a hard time getting used to your latest love."

"You know, they say that when a cat winks, it's saying to you, 'I love you'."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I don't think that I've ever seen a cat wink."

"You have to build up a relationship with the cat and be super observant. Nikoo winks at me all the time. That's why I call him 'the love of my life'."

"Well, I don't wink very well."

"But you're not a cat, why would you want to wink?"

"I want to get the same message across to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I love you." _Rules be damned!_ Harry then gave her a lingering and passionate kiss, just to make sure that she knew that he meant what he just said, and not that he was trying to speak 'cat'.

_I won't ever let anything or anyone take you away from me again._

* * *

That's it, we're done.

A big THANK YOU for the faithful who have come along for this ride. I hope you have enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed spinning it.

Now, one last time, a review or two would be nice.


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